Tales of the Woodland Realm: Mavolia
by Hauku
Summary: A young elf of 16, Hauku, and his best friend Tikoro, are assassins of a well known order. As Hauku tries to understand his undeveloped emotions they rescue Tikoro's childhood friends, Faline and Kiera. Faline, Hauku discovers he is quickly falling for.
1. Chapter 1

_Tales_

_Of the_

_Woodland Realm_

_The Mavolian Realm_

_Hauku_

_Age: 16_

_Magic: Shadow_

_Characteristics:_ Raven black hair, deep blue eyes, a mysterious young elf possessing magical and martial art abilities. Tikoro's best friend and rival.

Hauku is a mysterious detached young elf that hails from the Woodland Realm. He doesn't have any memory of his past besides wandering as youth until he was taken in by one of the most skilled Blade Master in all of the realms when he was eight. By the time he was eleven he mastered the style he was taught and even learned to control most of his magic before his old master finally died and he went off on his own. He lived the life of an assassin for nearly four years working for an organization called the Shadow Order where he met his best friend Tikoro, his first and only friend and rival who gave him the meaning of friendship and allowed him to experience emotion for the first time in his life. Since then, they have worked together for nearly four years and now they are inseparable. Hauku isn't exactly the outgoing type but thanks to Tikoro and he slowly figuring out what friendships and bonds are all about. As he develops one of these bonds with Faline he begins to realize that there was undoubtedly a little more to their bond than just friendship.

Faline

Age: 15

Magic: Water

Characteristics: Honey-brown hair, deep blue eyes, a playful and extremely beautiful princess from Lothlorien.

Faline is a very beautiful young elven princess from the Realm of Lothlorien. She doesn't get out much and may be a little naïve but she is a strong hearted lass who treasures her friends. After becoming trapped in the realm of Mavolia along with Hauku, his best friend Tikoro, and her sister Kiera, she's about to get an adventure she will never forget. During her time in Mavolia she looks to her friends for support and soon develops an interesting friendship with Hauku who she is forever flirting with much to his dismay since he hasn't got a clue. But deep down, she sees a sweeter and more caring side of Hauku that is hidden within his callous heart and she is quickly falling in love with him. He is completely unaware of the fact that it seems to only show a little when he is around her and she is determined to bring it out in the open.

Tikoro

Age: 17

Magic: Ice

Characteristics: Pure-white hair (an Imilian trait.), wild blue eyes, an adventurous and crazy teenager but with a nature cool as his magic

Tikoro is a happy go lucky type of guy who is the young ice prince of the realm of Imil. When he was around twelve Tikoro abandoned his home during a great fire in the palace and went on a quest for adventure and took the guise of a traveler and got passage off the isle. A few months after leaving he arrived in the Woodland Realm and he spent a week there when he was suddenly and mysteriously robbed by a young child. He tracked down the delinquent yet he was interrupted when a young dark haired boy got in his way and caused for the young thief to escape. When the young boy didn't let him continue his chase of the thief they got into a fight which ultimately led to a draw. The raven-haired boy introduced himself as Hauku and explained that the kid was hungry and needed money to eat at some point during the fight and that's when Tikoro realized the boy's cause to protect and instantly took a liking to him. Slowly but steadily, Tikoro helped his new friend Hauku break of him of a somewhat callous heart and develop emotions as well as a fire to fuel their rivalry.

Chapter 1

It was late afternoon. Evening would be upon the realm very soon. Then the darkness of night would take over again. Mavoles and spirits would soon awaken and walk the now empty streets of the realm. The beautiful fields of azul flowers would once again glow under the light of the eternal full moon in the night sky. And this night…Tikoro and I had an assignment.The warm wind blew through my raven-black hair about my eyes and I gently whisked it away with a flick of my fingers. The view up here was pretty fantastic. For miles there was nothing but scattered trees and rolling hills in this area. I could even see the dark mountains of the north that stood looming in the distance. I've traveled there once or twice and it is a very treacherous place filled with un-chartered land and a biting cold. Not too often will I go up there. And in front of me lay a great ocean that led to the far side of the realm. The white beaches were very beautiful and held many treasures such as rare stones and shells. The glimmering waters were in truth the greatest sight I had ever seen. They were blue and clear as the sky. Yet, they were also my prison. They were bars that blocked me from returning to my homeland…"Daydreaming again are we, Hauku?" came a voice behind me.My first and very best friend Tikoro suddenly appeared at my side looking down at me with a small smile. He sat next to me on the tall red roofed building upon which we stood and gazed out into the horizon blue eyes holding a certain sparkle for adventure. "Ahh…beautiful place huh?" he asked me.I shook my head grimly. "Too bad it's a prison…" I replied.He shook his head appalled by my dimness of the situation and his pure white hair flew about his face. He leaned back with a small sigh. "It's not bad, mate." He said cheerfully. "Sooner or later we'll be going home. Just watch and see."I shrugged at him. "Always the optimist…" I sighed.He also shrugged but said nothing.

We stared out into the landscape a second more before finally I made a small gesture with my hand and suddenly a sphere of dark energy appeared hovering over my open palm as magic energy flowed to my hand. It suspended there for about a second before I let it disintegrate into the air.

Tikoro smiled. "Your magic continues to get stronger," he said. I shrugged again.

"Perhaps," I replied.

"Your not too talkative today are ya', mate?"

I glanced at him quizzically. "When am I ever talkative?"

He chuckled. "Never actually," he replied. "Just loosen up once in a while."

I stared at him in confusion and he just shook his head with a smile then got up. "I'm hungry. Want to go eat something?"

"I'm alright," I responded.

He sighed. "Do you even eat, mate?"

"Yes…"

"Laugh?"

"When something is funny…"

I can't ever remember you laughing."

"I believe I have…why all the strange questions?"

He chuckled. "Because its fun messing with ya' like that."

I smiled. "I don't see the humor in it."

"Ah! At least you smile!"

I finally let out a little laugh to humor him.

"Ah hah! You can laugh after all!" he said.

"I can tell jokes too. Must I also show you that?"

"What's this, mate? A joke coming from you?" he said mock surprise.

"I was being sarcastic…"

Tikoro just chuckled. "You really are something you know that?" He began staring off into the distance and I saw him furrow his brow… like he was thinking real hard about something... then he sat back down next to me. "Okay, last question. Ever had a thing for somebody? You know, a girl?"I blinked deliberately at the question from confusion. Like or love wasn't exactly and emotion in my vocabulary. It barely made any sense to me unless it came to Tikoro who I cared for as my friend. Beyond that, I never had such a feeling.

I though about it for some time before I finally gave a simple answer. "No…"

He nodded as if expecting that answer. "I see."

I turned to him. "What about you? I'm sure with your personality you've grown close to someone like that."

His face changed to a calm dreamy kind of look as his mind slipped into a memory. Obviously he had such feelings for someone at one time. He lay silent for a while, as if he was detailing every minute he could remember. Almost living it.

"Yah...about seven years ago. A young lass came to the palace once…her and her sister. Yet I was afraid of them because they were new to my realm and I had never seen people without white hair before except for one of them." He turned and faced me with an embarrassed smile. "And I was shy around the ladies then."

That, I found rather amusing. Tikoro was the most outgoing person I had ever seen. But I had laughed too much for one day and let it pass.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well…they were there for about a month. I got to know them a little and played with them which consisted of them chasing me around the palace… then they left. Back to their own kingdom…" He sighed and leaned back against the roof staring into the twilight sky. "The one I like though…her name was…something…I forget. But she said I'd see her again sometime…maybe."

He truly seemed sad about losing his friend but I had no clue on what to say exactly but I tried something I had heard before. "Awww…"

He jolted from his spot wide-eyed and I looked at him.

"…What?"

"I can't believe you just said that!" he said laughing but still in shock.

"Was it wrong to do?"

"No but its funny. Pity was never an emotion that I expected from you!"

I shrugged and hid another smile. Experimenting with emotions was actually somewhat interesting. "Anyway, the girls….where are they from exactly?"

He thought a minute. "Well, I'm sure the one I had grown closer to was from my realm. She had white hair like the Imilians and I sensed that ice magic trait about her too. But she was adopted by her friend's father who is the King of Lothlorien."

"Hmm…that's rather close to my realm."

He nodded.

I got up and stretched out looking toward the blue sea in the distance trying to imagine if there was a way back home. It had been such a long time since I had seen it. I don't know…being away from my homeland had left a sort of emptiness inside. "You know what?"

"What?"

"Once we are out of here…why don't we pay a visit to Lothlorien?"

I looked back at him but he only stared at me with the weirdest look in his eyes. "Hauku…I don't think I'm ever going to have you figured out completely. You're really starting to surprise me with the emotions you are starting to let out."

"That wasn't emotion that was so you will shut up about your long lost lover." I replied sarcastically.

But he knew I didn't mean it and he just laughed and lied back down on the roof. "Whatever, mate. One day you will be the same…"

I seriously doubted that and I looked back off toward the horizon to think. For a few minutes, that's all we did. No talking, no fighting, we just sat there and thought about whatever.

But then suddenly I frowned when my eyes caught movement out in the distance. Something white was approaching from the trees. Were they ghosts? I craned my eyes harder to see what it was and my sharp sight managed to make out the shapes of two people. They looked like women. That was strange…what were they doing so far away from the villages? Nobody travels out here alone much anymore. I stared at them a second longer as they crossed into the fields before I finally spoke.

"Tikoro…?"

"I see them, mate." He replied. He had sat up now and been looking in the same direction as I had. "Did you see where they came from?"

I shook my head. "They must have been hiking through the woods or something." I peered at them trying to see pass the glow of their bright white clothing then added. "They look harmless…I see no weapons."

"But who are they? Nobody travels this far out here alone since the appearances of the Necro."

"Well let them get a little closer and we can find out."

We stood up where we were and looked down over the side of the huge red wood building. I think we were nearly a mile into the sky and this wasn't even the top yet. We stood evenly with the clouds as they floated all around us but the top of the building extended far beyond the height of the white and grey puff balls suspended throughout the sky. This actually was going to make getting down all the more fun.

Tikoro looked at me with an ecstatic look in his eye and a wide grin on his face. "Ya' ready, mate?" he asked.

I shrugged blankly and without a word leaped off the side of the building and flipped into a freefall toward the ground.

Tikoro shook his head and then followed likewise in the same manner.

"YEEHAAA!!!" he screamed from the adrenaline rush. Then after about a few seconds I felt the presence of his magic and looked up to see him creating an icy path under his feet and he proceeded to slide down the rest of the way toward the ground with a series of twists and loops and plunges toward the ground.

_"No fair…"_

But then again, I could probably make something of my own using my shadow magic but I think I enjoyed more the rush of the air swishing past my face and through my hair as I fell while flipping and twisting toward the earth.

But soon my fun had come to a close as I puffed through a soggy cloud and realized I was now pretty close to my landing point. Quickly I leaned back into a series of back flips that slowed my descent as it pushed air toward the ground. I finally was only about fifty feet from the earth and I swiftly made one last somersault before landing silently upon my feet creating a cloud of dust as the air I had carried down with me was pushed in different directions.

"Hey!! Look out, mate!!" came a sudden call from the skies and I turned to see my friend gliding down the ice path on his feet before he made the path curve upward into the like a ramp and he quickly shot off it like a bullet and flipped into the air.

"WHOOO HOO!!!"

He launched into a quick series of back flip twists before landing in the same manner as I had and then he quickly spun around and looked at me with an excited smile. "Oh yah! Perfect landing! 10.0! And the crowd goes wild!!!"

Tikoro made a mock cheering noise that was supposed to sound like a roaring crowd but unfortunately the effect was lost and he only managed to make a few weird noises that sounded like squeaks.

I looked at him curiously. "Perfect landing? 10.0? The crowd goes wild?"

"Yah, you know, like they cheer and stuff. Have you ever been to some of the ice events in Imil?"

"I've never set foot upon that big cold ice cube…" I said shuddering at the thought of that island's punishing and bitter weather. I much preferred the normal warm weather of my forest home within the Woodland Realm.

Tikoro shook his head. "You know what? Forget Lothlorien, when we get out we're going to Imil to see one of those ice games."

Ice…yuck…

"Anyway…" I began and nodded off toward the approaching figures in the distance. "What are we going to do about those two? They are heading this way."

Tikoro shrugged and began walking off toward the building. "We'll wait here and do some recon."

I looked toward the sun. Twilight was over now and evening was setting into the realm now. They would definitely have some trouble seeing us now if we decided to hide. Besides, I could use a little stealth practice.

"Keep to shadow." I called to Tikoro before catching up with him. "And keep your sword ready…"

He only looked at me with a little confusion. "Why? They are just a couple of girls. I doubt they could fight us if they were troublemakers."

I sighed. "Just in case…"

"This place is so beautiful! Don't you think, Faline?" cried the rather adventurous voice of the white-haired girl Imilian that was farther ahead of her companion who's name was Faline.

Faline only looked at her over-eager partner with the slightest hint of a glare. Obviously she didn't share her friend's enthusiasm. "Kiera!" she called ahead. "Father is going to wonder where we have gone you know!"

Kiera stopped in her tracks as she turned back to face her friend. "Always the little baby." She teased. "They are just over that small trench. Lets just check that place out real quick and we will return to the camp, ok?"

Faline observed ahead of them. That strange red-building she was sure had not been there when she and Kiera first arrived here with the small caravan. Their father, King Elwood of Lothlorien along with Queen Lyn and a number of knights and servants were just now on their way back to the kingdom after a conference with leaders in the Woodland Realm. When they had camped here she and Kiera had gone off exploring through the woods and across the dried river. Then, when they got to the other side of the wood they saw that building. It had just appeared from out of nowhere it seemed. But Faline was sure it wasn't there before. But instead of turning back, her sister, Kiera interests and curiosity was now peaked and now they were heading off to check it out…much to the dismay of Faline.

"But…Kiera…what if they don't realize we're gone and they leave us?"

Kiera grinned. "I can find the way!"

Faline shuddered. Kiera wasn't very good with directions and even though they could easily follow the trail back home, it was still more than a two days ride back to Lothlorien. On top of that there were mountain bandits and thieves and…she wasn't very comfortable being alone in the dark either all that much.

She looked back up to Kiera who she just now realized was walking on ahead of her.

"Hey, wait!" she cried. "What if there are bandits lying in wait over there and they decided to attack us?"

Kiera turned back to Faline with another sly grin on her face. "Then I'll do this!"

Suddenly from its scabbard she produced a slim silver blade and brandished it expertly…or at least she would like to think it was expertly and pretended to jab at Faline.

"I can protect us too, see?"

Faline only sighed.

Kiera quickly sheathed her blade and grabbed her sister's hand. "Come on, we won't stay longer than fifteen minutes ok?"

Faline nodded realizing persisting to argue was basically meaningless and followed Kiera toward the strange building.

She still felt something very eerie about it however…

Tikoro and I observed from our hiding place from slanted roofing as the two mysterious girls stepped onto the large smooth wooden bridge and suddenly become rather fascinated with the deep dark chasm that rested below it that seemed almost endless. In this waning light they probably wouldn't have been able to see it but there was a large calm river down there that you could canoe down that would lead you to several small riverside villages and towns.

As we watched them the white haired girl who I supposed to be Imilian looked toward our direction for a split second making us duck a little lower behind the roofing yet she didn't see us but I felt Tikoro give a small gasp.

I looked at him curiously and he turned to me. "I think I've seen her before, mate." He whispered.

"From where?"

"I'm not sure the memory is all faint. But I'm sure I've seen her face somewhere before."

I looked back over the roofing and watched them a little more. They definitely weren't Mavole. They were elves but not too many of our kind resided in this realm. I suddenly had an idea.

"Why don't you go talk to them?" I suggested.

He looked at me with a shocked expression like I just told him to go and drop his pants in front of them. "Me?" he hissed indignantly. "Why don't you?"

"I'm not a people person."

"What makes me any different?"

"You're more outgoing."

"So what?"

"So you go talk to them."

"No!"

"Don't tell me you're still shy around the ladies." I prodded.

He faltered there. "Huh…? No…no…I'm not I just…"

Hmmm…maybe he was still a little shy…

"Then go talk to them oh Great and Wonderful Ladies Man."

He sighed and looked over the edge of the roofing again before suddenly freezing up again.

"What?" I asked.

He slowly looked back toward me. "I thought you said they weren't armed!?" he hissed at me.

I looked over the roofing too, realized my mistake, and turned back to him with a rather sheepish grin. "Oops?"

"Yah…oops…"

"Come on Tikoro lets just go talk to them and see what they are up to."

He sighed but then quickly looked at me. "When you say _"We"_ you mean just _"Me"_ right?"

I smiled again.

He sighed one last time. "Fine…your call, mate…"

We unnoticeably made our way over the roof as the two girls kept staring into the dark abyss below and silently landed on the brick ground near them. We weren't exactly trying to hide our presence then but I was sure that at least one of them would have turned around or caught us in their peripheral vision…but neither were the case. We stood there for about ten more seconds waiting but when Tikoro didn't move to talk them I gave him a tiny shove forward toward them. Tikoro glared at me in return before turning back to the women.

"Ahem…" he murmured, clearing his throat.

Amazingly there was still no reaction from them. They were either deaf or couldn't tell his voice from the wind blowing around. I thought it was kind of pathetic really. They would so easily get killed if someone wanted to sneak up on them.

Tikoro tried again. "AHEM!!"

This time we got their attention but it was pretty dramatic. The honey brown haired girl yelped in fright nearly tumbling into her friend who was trying to draw her sword and swing it toward us in a failed attempt. Instead it ended up clattering to the ground with a loud clang before she finally picked it up and held it toward us threateningly. At least…I think it was threatening…she looked pretty wobbly as she held it and her face was almost as white as her hair with panic.

Tikoro slowly raised his hands showing he didn't have his weapon drawn and tried to calm the girl down. "Easy there, mate. We're not going to hurt you…" he said calmly.

The girls eyes flicked from him to me and then back to him. "Who are you two…?" her voice squeaked trying to get a grip on herself. "What do you want from us?"

Tikoro shook his head. "I should be asking the same thing, why are you out here? Don't you know it's dangerous to travel alone out here?"

She didn't respond, she looked back at her friend who whispered something in her ear. But we heard it perfectly.

_"They might be bandits…"_ I heard her whisper in a shaky voice.

Tikoro laughed. "We're not bandits or thieves or anything of the sort, so come now, put that sword away."

The girls darted back to him. This time there was a fire as she tried to gain her confidence back. She stepped toward us putting her sword dangerously close to Tikoro's face. "No, you have a blade too. I can't trust you."

Tikoro carefully eyed the silver blade. "And if you keep bring that sword any closer to my face I'm going to use it too."

Suddenly the other girl spoke up again. "Kiera…"

"Faline, just go, I'll handle them."

Tikoro paused a minute trying to remember where he had heard names like that before but soon forgot about it and chuckled. "Handle us? Can you even swing that thing without dropping it?" he teased.

Suddenly the girl Kiera glared at him. I think he just made a bad move right there. Taunting women wasn't very nice…

She took a stance then swung. "How's this!"

The blade careened with a swift speed in the direction of Tikoro's head but he stepped back dodging the blow but the sword managed to catch a small piece of the bangs of his hair and swiped it right off. He watched it flutter to the ground before looking back up at her a little wide eyed.

"Yikes…" he murmured, then realizing the situation he asked with a little surprise. "Were you actually trying to kill me?!"

There was no response, just another flurry of blows came at him in different combinations.

"Hey!!" he cried expertly dodging them. "Stop!"

The girl kept coming.

"Wait a minute! Stop!"

"Kiera!" Faline screamed at her friend.

Suddenly Tikoro drew his own glimmering sword.

Clank!

Tikoro blocked one of Kiera's attacks and locked blades with her. She struggled with his strength and he smiled. "Do you do this to anybody who walks up to you to say hello?" he asked.

She glared at him and forced him off before unleashing a new barrage of strikes at my friend. Tikoro, not being one to fight an unskilled woman, did what he thought was best.

He ran.

Kiera chased after him all the way down to the other side swinging her blade as she went and Tikoro dodged, blocked, or parried each blow with some difficulty as he retreated from her.

Faline and I watched their little duel before finally, Faline looked in my direction and I in hers at the exact same moment and our eyes met for about a second before we both looked away. The girl was very, very, pretty I noticed. She was beautiful even, but I never let my thoughts travel down a road such as that and kept myself from thinking about it. But for some reason I still felt it tugging at my mind.

Suddenly I felt her eyes on me again, and for a second I didn't look but then I just had to look again. Her eyes were a deep, bright, blue, and they had this magical captivation to them as I stared into them. They just seemed to mesmerize me. And now they were trained on my own eyes, staring at me, gazing at me……which was actually making me extremely uncomfortable in a way.

Clang! Clang! Clang, clang!

"Oooff!" Tikoro grunted when he suddenly was forced back against the railing nearly falling over it but he recovered…just in time to see Kiera jumping into the air to unleash a downward cut at his head that could've cut him in half down the middle. But he quickly darted out of the way. Yet his cloak caught in the wood when the blade came down and held him in place against the bridge. Tikoro quickly struggled with the garment before finally turning and kicking the flat edge of the sword out of his cloak so he could get free and took off again. This girl was getting dangerously close to hitting him and he couldn't fight her so…he called for help.

"Hauku!" he called to me as he ran by. He quickly tagged my hand. "Here, mate…it's a tag match, your turn." He said breathlessly.

I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about…but if he wanted me to take on that girl he could forget it.

Suddenly Kiera came again, swinging full speed and Tikoro managed to block it just in time.

"Hey, you're supposed to attack him now not me!" he complained.

The girl gave him a slight smile. "Still think I can't fight."

I didn't think so…but I didn't say that out loud…

But stupid Tikoro said something out loud with a sarcastic smile of his own. "You still fight like a girl." He retorted

Her smile turned to a frown. She quickly knocked him off again then, feinted a swing, and then stomped hard on his toe with her long, tight fitting, travel boots.

"OWW!!!" Tikoro cried hopping away on one foot. "That's dirty!"

She was quickly after him but now they were heading in Faline's direction who had been laughing but now yelped in fear as they came right in her direction and she quickly darted out of the way to where I was leaning casually on the side of the bridge.

She stood there next to me not moving but still breathing a little after her little scare but then slowly looked me. At first, I didn't return the gesture but then I finally did.

"Hey…umm…what's a tag match?" I asked.

She gave me a weird look.

"Never mind…" I groaned. It was obviously a well known subject that I wasn't familiar with and I was just a little slow.

I looked toward her friend who was still battling away with mine but realized she had now disarmed him much to my surprise. She kicked it away from him and began chasing him all over the bridge but appeared that she was laughing a little as she pursued him while he looked very much afraid for his life. Either she was enjoying herself or realizing that his end was near and her sword was about to taste blood and she wanted to laugh in triumph. Eeesh…sadistic…

But I turned back to Faline observing her a little out of the corner of my eye. She was younger than me I imagined, but only by about a year perhaps. I sensed something about her though, a peculiar essence…but it was very weak…

I noticed she was staring at me again…but not with fear. It was kind of more like an awestruck dreamy kind of look. That was rather creepy…

I looked back down at her and she turned away. Yah, she was still shy, I decided to introduce myself.

"So…uh…what's your name?" I asked.

Never mind…I guess I was going to make her do it first.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She returned feeling a little dumb. "I should have introduced myself. My name is Faline." She added a slight courtesy. "What's your name?"

"I'm Hauku." I replied.

I didn't want to feel stupid so I made a slight bow as well…I wasn't actually used to being formal. They don't teach that in the line of work of an assassin…

"Hauku…" she repeated to herself. Her voice sounded softer than I thought it was. To tell the truth it was leaving me in a dreamy state like her eyes did.

"HAUK…OOFFF!!!" came a sudden grunt when Tikoro once again ran by seeking my assistance only to tackled by Kiera who had discarded her blade and plowed him over into the ground. Oh well…at least she couldn't kill him now.

I turned back to Faline once again ignoring my friend's plea for help. I occasionally hear loud whacks and grunts as Kiera manhandled him all over the bridge. To tell the truth, I actually snickered a little.

"So are you a water mage?" I asked her curiously. "I sense magic about you."

"Oh…" she murmured. "I am…sort of…but it's really weak and I can't control my power properly."

Whack!

"OWW!!!"

Smack!

"AUUGHH!!!"

Bam!

"OW, OW, OW!!!! HAUKU!!!!"

We weren't exactly paying attention anymore.

"How did you know I was a water mage?" she asked. "Are you a mage yourself?"

I nodded. "My essence is Shadow, my friend Tikoro's is Ice."

Faline suddenly froze. For some reason that named stopped our conversation in its tracks. "Tikoro…?" she squeaked. "Did you say Tikoro? The Imilian Prince Tikoro?"

I nodded again. "Umm…yah, the guy getting his brains beat out over there by your friend."

Faline quickly spun around seeing Kiera sitting on top of the chest of my poor friend trying to keep his arms pinned and occasionally whacking him here and there. She ran toward them. "Kiera, stop it's Tikoro!!!" she called.

Kiera slugged my friend one last time before the name sunk into her mind and she quickly got off of him in shock. "Ti…Tikoro…?"

The poor guy laid there on the ground gasping for breath nearly unconscious and grasping at his bruises. He stared up at his attacker wearily. "What…?" he growled at her. He had obviously really gotten his butt handed to him on a silver platter for not defending himself.

Faline finally made it over to them and she knelt down beside him turning him over so they could see his face and they stared at him a minute but then suddenly pulled away gasping.

Tikoro in response carefully touched his face and groaned. "She beat me really bad didn't she?" he asked in a small voice. "Is…is something missing?"

"No!" Faline cried. "She got closer to his face. "Tikoro look…its us! Do you remember?"

In fact he didn't. He thought it had something to do with the big lump he felt growing on his head. But soon he took a closer look at the girls' faces. "Faline…? Ki…Kiera?" he asked weakly.

Both girls nodded quickly and tensely almost as if they were holding back a cry of joy.

Tikoro looked at them a few seconds longer letting his eyes focus and then laid his head back onto the smooth brick ground and gave small goofy grin. "Oh…hello again."

Finally all that pent up energy finally just exploded and Kiera and Faline gave a loud squeal of delight and nearly tackled their friend in the surprise and joy of seeing him once again. Both of them quickly wrapped their slim arms around Tikoro's bruised form and hugged him tightly.

I stood to the side watching their happy little reunion. I actually somewhat wondered what they were feeling but I couldn't seem to bring forth the emotion that I was seeking. All I saw was joy and I saw the blissfulness and how much energy they were full of now. I actually found it quite interesting but again as I always did, I just discarded those thoughts.

Tikoro tried to hug back but he only grimaced in pain as the bruises from where Kiera had been hitting him finally kicked in as pain began to register with his brain again.

"Ow…ow…that hurts" he groaned.

Kiera and Faline quickly let go realizing they were causing him more grief at the moment. "Oh…we're sorry." Kiera apologized laying him back down. But instead Tikoro sat up a little and ran a hand over his sores and emitted a blue glowing light from his hand. He was using his healing magic to get rid of his pain. As he started on the back of his head he spoke again. "When did you ever hit like that, Kiera? It bloody hurt!" he said to her rather with a bit of surprise in his voice.

"I am so sorry, Tikoro." She said giving him another hug yet more softly this time. "I wasn't trying to hit you that hard…"

"You could have fooled me, mate…" he replied sarcastically.

She looked down sadly. "Do you forgive me?" she asked all sweet and innocently.

Tikoro quickly flashed a little grin. "Of course I do! Don't get all worked up about knocking my brains out." He laughed still a slight trace of sarcasm.

She looked at him still her sad blue eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Kiera, I forgive you…" but he then turned an evil eye in my direction. "But not him…you creepy backstabbing wooglie." He said accusingly. "I thought you always had my back, mate?"

I shrugged. "I do…I just thought that was actually kind of funny." I replied quietly.

"Ha!" he scoffed at me. "Since when has anything ever been that funny to you??"

I smugly gave a small smile. "That…"

He rolled his eyes then held his hand out to me. "Miladies, this is my best friend…err…was my best friend, Hauku." He introduced sarcastically. "He's not a looker but he's friendly enough."

I snorted. "Thanks."

"No problem, mate. And yah, this is Princess Kiera and Princess Faline of the Lothlorien Realm. The ones I told you about."

The girls offered a polite courtesy and I bowed in return. I still wondered however what they were doing so far out here.

Tikoro got to his feet and then he turned to Kiera with a grin. "When did you start learning swordplay? We would have a lot more fun when we were kids."

Kiera shook her head. "Well if you wouldn't run away so much whenever Faline and I approached you, you might have found out." She replied.

Tikoro looked at her smugly. "Well there was a fat chance of that since all you did was just teased me." He paused a second. "And kiss my cheek..."

Faline pointed at Kiera accusingly. "That was all her, not me."

Kiera smiled mischievously. "Speaking of which…"

Before Tikoro could make a move, she gave him a small peck on the cheek. "Got ya finally." She said triumphantly.

I saw the beginnings of a reddening form on Tikoro's cheek as he gave a small embarrassed smile and threw a glance in my direction to see if I had been watching and when he realized I did, he blushed all the more.

I chuckled to myself. I guess he didn't want me knowing that he had a bit of a weak spot for Kiera still. But then, something suddenly hit me. These girls were from our world! Not around here! That could only mean…

I quickly looked toward the darkening sky and noticed that the sun was nearly set across the horizon. Before long, evening would end…

Night was falling…

We had to get them out of here fast!

"Tikoro!" I quickly cried out in warning.

He looked at me abruptly sensing the dire tension in my voice and looked to where I was looking at and his fell upon the setting sun and then the same fears entered his mind. "Oh no…"

The girls looked at us nervously. "What's wrong?" Faline asked. "What's happened?"

I quickly turned to her. "You shouldn't be here!" I replied. "Get out of here now!"

"Why? What's going on?"

Tikoro grabbed the girls, spun them around and started pushing them back the way they came. "You don't have much time! The sun is setting, you have to leave here before it gets dark or you'll trapped here forever!"

The two princesses looked back at us in confusion. They didn't know what we were talking about. I glanced back to the sun. It was setting quickly…too quickly…as if it wanted to stop them. If they didn't leave this moment they weren't going to make it.

"Hurry and go!" I urged.

They started to but then, Kiera turned back around to look back at us. "But…but…what about you guys?" she asked.

Tikoro shook his head. "It's too late for us…now go! You have to leave!"

They just stood there sadly looking at us. Neither of them wanted to leave. They hadn't seen Tikoro in such a long time and now…their wonderful reunion was crashing into ruins.

Tikoro looked back to the then back at them. "I SAID GO!!!!" he shouted at them.

Startled by his furious outburst, Faline and Kiera quickly bolted back down the bridge tears in their eyes as they ran as fast as they could back toward the forest from which they had came leaving us there watching them go. Tikoro was tense…very tense. His fists were balled up like he was in agony of something and he restlessly shuffled his feet as if he was struggling not to take off after them. He wanted to…but he couldn't. It was impossible. We were trapped in this realm with no real escape in sight.

I went over and picked up Tikoro's sword that was lying on the bridge still and then walked over to him and handed it over. "Here you go…" I said quietly.

At first, I don't think he realized I had been standing there but then he finally took his blade and sheathed it in the scabbard. He didn't speak. He only gazed after the two princesses who were running across the distant fields. They were headed towards the small trench…the same trench we came over nearly a year ago before. But now to us…it was a watery captivity.

I looked at Tikoro who only just stood there staring. I bet to him, this felt like more of a prison to him then it ever did to me.

I realized he was feeling much sorrow. "I'm sorry." I said.

He shook his head ruefully. "She was right here, mate…" he sighed. "I had her back. After all of these years…she was standing right here and now…there she goes again..."

I had no words for him save sorry. I wasn't able to comfort him. I wouldn't know how to begin with. Like I had said before, there weren't too many emotions in my vocabulary. I looked back to the fleeing girls and then to the sun. If I judged it right…I think it was going to disappear completely before they could even make it to the woods.

"Tikoro…I don't think they are going to make it." I said quietly. "It's far too late."

"Oh no…Hauku!!!" Tikoro suddenly cried in alarm. My eyes flashed in the direction he was looking as he pointed it out but I already saw it. There were swift shadows….nearly two dozen in all. From the way their movements were, they had targets, and they were heading westbound…straight for Faline and Kiera!

My eyes widened. "Necro…"

There were no other words to be said. Tikoro and I were off in a blazing cloud of dust as we sprinted at an inhuman speed down into the meadow fields and into the forest.

---------- Thats the first of my chapter and i hoped you enjoyed it. I was actually going to make a book before this so i could explain Hauku's past but i haven't had time to do it recently and I've had writer's block on 4 books already. Didn't really need a fifth. Oh well, please leave reviews and enjoy the next chapter!!!----------


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Necro were foul and savage creatures of darkness that killed any and all for the mere pleasure of it. In form, they looked no different from the average man. But they had a mottled dark grey skin color and glittering red eyes. They are a barbaric tribe and very war-like constantly training their high battle skills and honing it on each other as well as the innocent people of nearby towns. They are very formidable warriors.

Tikoro and I were off in an instant full speed after the princesses and drawing our bows and notching an arrow as we went.

"Kiera! Faline!" Tikoro shouted. "Hide quickly!!"

They never heard him, nor did they see the black armor clad warriors heading straight for them with blood lust.

Suddenly I saw a sharp flash in the woods like the sunlight had reflected off of metal and instantly felt my stomach turn.

Shuriken!

I watched in horror as the sharp throwing star cut through the air and straight for Faline's head. But she tripped on something and fell to the ground narrowly dodging the sharp projectile as it embedded itself in a tree next to her. Wow…she was lucky.

Twing!

An arrow caught the lead Necro in his side as Tikoro fired and stalled him for a second yet he kept running at the princesses drawing his sword and raising it while unleashing a loud war cry. Now Faline and Kiera saw the creatures and screamed in horror when they saw the blades they carried.

I drew back on my bow, aimed…

Twing!

My arrow sailed through the air straight and true striking the lead Necro perfectly in the head and exploding out the other side causing blood to splatter everywhere. Its body somersaulted and landed exactly a few feet away from the terrified princesses blood pouring out of its skewered head and into the grass. The effect I wanted from his death was achieved. Quickly the other Necro skidded to halt in confusion after seeing their comrade fall giving Tikoro and I the few seconds we needed to reach our friends.

I quickly reached Faline and picked and gently picked her up from off the ground. "Are you alright?" I asked quickly.

She grimaced a bit. "I sprained my ankle…" she whimpered. But then suddenly her eyes got wide. "LOOK OUT!!"

Dozens of shuriken were thrown in our direction by the Necro when they finally recovered from their surprise and tried to take us out from long range. I ducked under a few and quickly sprinted off taking cover behind a tree a few meters off while Tikoro grabbed Kiera and did the same.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

I sat Faline down and covered us with my cloak to protect us from the sharp splintering wood falling all around. I looked at her carefully for any other injuries but she only seemed to be in a bit of a shock and breathing hard.

"Are you ok?" I asked again.

She nodded. "I'm alright…" she said shakily. "What about you?"

I only blinked in wonder. I was rather not really expecting that. Few people have ever shown concern for my safety other than Tikoro.

Suddenly the volley of sharp metal stars ceased and then I heard the cold sound of steel blades being drawn from their scabbards. I quickly glanced at Tikoro who was about seven yards to my right. He looked at me and nodded with the smallest hint of a smile.

I nodded back and then turned back to Faline and wrapped her in my cloak. "You stay here and don't move." I said.

She nodded calmly yet I could tell she was still scared out of her mind. I patted her head. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

I stood up and together, Tikoro and I walked out from behind the trees drawing our silver blades as we went. There were about two dozen of the warriors out there and they were all well armed. Many carried double edged broad swords and huge battle axes that looked to heavy for a normal man to lift.

I pointed my sword at them. "Leave now and we will spare your lives." I said simply.

There was a snarling laughter among the group and then a rather large Necro stepped forward wielding two heavy looking swords of iron. "Just who do you think you are little elf?"

I gave a small smile. "You wouldn't be alive long enough to remember my name..." I said quietly but with a dangerous edge in it.

He laughed a great bellow and took a battle stance. "Fool! I am a Necro General! A warrior to be feared! I will cut you down and the females you hide behind the trees. Tremble and pray for a swift death!" He charged out at me and leaped into the air. "Prepare for the end!!"

I watched him strike and only smiled dully.

He slashed down at me but struck nothing but air as I sidestepped and redirected his blow away from me and into the ground. He was shocked at my sudden speed and tried to retract but had no time. I calmly but swiftly brought my sword into a slice and cleaved him half. He had no time to even feel pain as the body slid to the ground and breathed his last into a pool of blood.

I took a battle position as did Tikoro and he gave a lighthearted smile. "Well now, mates. Now that negotiations are over, who's next?"

This sent an uproar throughout the battalion and they charged at us blades raised ready to taste our blood.

Tikoro and I walked toward them to meet them head on but just before the battle started, darkness covered the land as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

They reached my friend first. He maneuvered under the first blade and quickly ran his sword through the head of his attacker then dodged the attack of another grabbing his arm and slicing his stomach open. Another came at him from behind in a desperate move to catch him off guard but it was to no avail. Tikoro's speed kept him away from the sword and before the Necro even could realize what happened he found Tikoro standing right behind him before screaming a gurgled cry as Tikoro ran the sword through the back of his throat.

Now I finally entered the fray. One came at me in a quick stab but in two fluidic movements I deflected the blade and ran him through his chest. I twisted the blade and I heard the rib cage of the Necro crunch, mutilating his heart, and he quickly sank to the ground coughing up his own blood.

I turned to the others who were starting to surround me. "I'm waiting…" I said quietly.

They answered the taunt and came at me. Two came from both of my sides but I quickly slashed up into the side of one and withdrew it to block the attack of the next Necro and with a sudden burst of speed cut through his neck. He was alive for a full five second longer before his head just suddenly rolled right off and his body sank to the ground.

"Hauku watch out!" came a sudden cry from Faline.

I turned just in time to catch a cheap shot coming from another Necro and I quickly retaliated. He blocked my shots for a minute as I drove him backwards on the defense but I ultimately proved to be way out of his league. I made a quick circular motion with my blade, twisting his arm and sending his weapon into the air. Before he could react I slashed his knee out making him drop to his good knee on the ground before I caught his blade and held it up to his neck. The Necro quivered in fear as he felt the cold hard blades at his neck. He closed his eyes and his lips faltered with words.

"M-m-mercy?" he asked desperately.

I criss-crossed the blades opening his throat and I felt drops of blood splatter on my face. He rolled over onto the ground and drowned in his own blood.

I looked at the Necro with no feeling. "Too late for that…"

I was in a certain mode now. Merciless...cold of heart...unfeeling whatsoever. I would give mercy to none of these creatures right now.

I tossed his sword away and faced the rest of the troop to fight again. But now, they were done fighting. They looked around at the carnage done by two young elves, barely men, and then turned tail and fled back into the shadows of the wood.

I watched them go and then relaxed a bit and turned to Tikoro who was still finishing off a Necro that was left behind. He swept the legs out from under it and then let out a war cry as he let his sword fall into its chest cutting it cleanly through. The Necro convulsed a bit, its body hadn't realized it was dead yet, before finally ceasing to move permanently.

My friend stood up and wiped some sweat from his brow. "What a bloody mess, mate." He looked around at the dead bodies. "Yikes, there was a lot of them out here today…how many did you kill?"

I shrugged and we both wiped the blood from our swords. I figured not too many, but by tonight that would all change. He looked at me with a grin. "That wasn't too bad for a days work, aye?"

I smiled back. "Aye…"

We turned our attention back to our friends hiding back behind the tree. Through the darkness I saw the blue eyes of the two princesses peek out from behind their shelter carefully making sure we were the only ones standing. They took in the sight of all the blood and corpses lying about and shuddered. Apparently they really weren't that much used to being around death.

After seeing it was safe Faline and Kiera got up and ran over to us for protection…or at least Kiera was able to. Faline forgot about her injured ankle and ended up limping and then stumbling back into the grass. Tikoro smirked and walked over and helped her up and getting her steady on her feet. "Easy there, mate." He said. "How you feeling?"

She nodded ok. "You saved our lives. Thank you…"

"Yes, thank you." Kiera chimed in.

Tikoro and I both nodded. However, Faline did save my life too. Without her warning I probably would have been a goner. But I didn't offer a thanks. That was never really my style. Instead, I kept the fact close to mind that I now owed her one. I looked toward the sky and realized the stars and moon were out now. They shone brightly over the land and illuminated where we were standing and the shadows of the trees cast their reach all around us.

I sighed. "It's dark now…" I murmured.

Kiera gave me a look. "What is so wrong about the night?"

I pointed off into the distance where they were headed. "Why don't you see for yourself?"

She and Faline both looked in the direction I was pointing and then suddenly gasped. What had used to be the dried up trench they crossed earlier was now a huge and sparkling ocean that glinted under the light of the moon and stars. The sandy beach was beautiful all its own and its precious stones and minerals glinted off of its soft sands. I had to admit it was an extraordinary sight. The mysterious glow that the waters gave when the moon shone upon it gave you a tingling sensation in the back of your mind that almost felt like magic. Which kind of made me wonder…was there were magical properties or artifacts within the ocean?

Faline and Kiera were simply awestruck by the sight of the seemingly infinite ocean. We stood there for nearly two minutes as they stared through the trees gawking before Kiera slowly turned to Tikoro.

"What happen??" she cried nervously. "What is going on?"

Tikoro sighed. "You had till night fell to leave this place." Tikoro explained quietly. He made a gesture all around. "Its night now. You're trapped here like me and my mate here now…"

Faline glanced back at us. "But…but…only at night, right?" she asked hopefully. "In the morning we can leave?"

I shook my head. "That ocean will always remain the same to us." I said. "We've been here almost a year and it hasn't changed since…I don't think there is an escape."

Tikoro elbowed me in the gut. "Hauku…" he hissed at me. "Would you please try to be a little optimistic?"

But it was already a little too late for that. Faline understood the fact that we had been trapped here a lot longer than they had and we haven't found a way out. The horrible truth hit her that she might not be going home. I saw her eyes water suddenly before finally a tear slipped out from under her eye and trickled down her cheek. After she realized she was crying she quickly turned away from us and just stared back toward the ocean. I felt her emotions strongly but not only hers but from Kiera too. She wasn't crying like her sister yet she was still very, very upset. Tikoro noticed this also and put an arm around her shoulders. "It's alright, mate." He said soothingly. "We just haven't found a way out yet, that's all. We're working on it." He turned to me. "Aren't we, Hauku?" he asked yet I detected the _"don't go making them upset!"_ touch in his voice.

I nodded. "Yah."

Kiera said nothing. She only stared off into the ocean almost like she was trying to will herself a pathway home. Tikoro took her hand. "Come on, Kiera." He said. "You need a little rest."

Kiera leaned back against him for physical support but also for emotional support too. They began to depart back for the building but Tikoro looked at me and nodded off to Faline. Then, Tikoro used his magic and was gone before my eyes when he used his teleport ability.

I sighed and walked over to her. She was sitting down, I think her ankle was bothering her. Drat…I should have gotten Tikoro to heal it before he left but I had forgotten.

I kneeled down behind her. "Hey…" I whispered softly. "We gotta go…"

She jumped at my words like she had forgotten I was there. But then she slowly turned and looked at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen. I never thought eyes like hers…so happy and beautiful…could ever look so sad.

"I want to go home…" she whispered back to me meekly trying to keep her tears at bay.

"I wish I could take you." I replied.

She said nothing and stared back off into the ocean. She didn't move a muscle. I guess she wasn't planning on going anywhere…I decided to just sit with her awhile till she was ready to move.

I un-strapped my sword from my back and laid in the grass next to me before leaning back and gazing into the sky. There were many stars out tonight and it was as clear as could be. It was the perfect time for a midnight stroll but I was stuck babysitting.

We sat there for nearly five minutes but finally I felt an urge for a conversation to try and get her mind off things.

"How's your foot?"

She looked down at it and tried to move it. "It hurts very much now but I can't move it anymore…" she replied quietly.

I also took a quick glance at her foot and realized it was swelling up a bit. I suddenly got up. "Here…"

"What…? Whoa!" she cried

"Just hold tight ok?"

"…Ok…"

I lifted her into my arms almost slinging her across my back like I usually did with people but instead carried her in a normal type of way close to my chest that kept her comfortable. I then began carrying her out of the woods and onto the sparkling sandy beaches and toward the water's edge. My soft travel boots made no noise across the sand's surface and I carefully scanned the area looking for potential threats but there was none of the sort. At least not yet. There were more things than just Necro that walked the night

As we went I felt a small tear drop that made a little wet spot on my tunic shirt. I looked down her. "Are you ok?" I asked for perhaps the fourth time today.

She nodded and said something but it was kind of muffled.

"What was that?"

She pulled her face away from my chest so I could hear her. "Yes…it's just…you reminded me of my father. He used to carry me this way when I was younger…"

I thought about that. Me being a dad? Or a father figure in the first place? Yah right…

I walked up to the water's edge and then set her down on the sand. "Soak your foot in the water." I told her.

She did as she was told and slipped her foot into the cool water. "Hey…that feels a little better." She said.

I nodded and reached into a pouch on my belt. "Just hold still a minute…"

I pulled out a pinch of sparkling dust from the pouch and then carefully removed her foot from the water and sprinkled the residue onto it. Then I dipped it back into the water.

A look of surprise came across her face. "My foot suddenly is numb." She told me.

"For right now that's all I can do for you. I'm no magic healer yet but I can use medicines perfectly fine." I explained.

"Where did you get that stuff?"

I really had no idea where it came from. I was given a small amount every time I had received an assignment from my superiors just in case I had any injuries during combat. But I couldn't divulge my sources so I told her I was once a medical apprentice some years ago and learned how to make special medicines.

She bought this and her eyes looked at me in wonder. "I never would have guessed."

Ha…me neither. I thought.

We sat there a little while more and Faline continued to stare into the distance eyeing the horizon. She was still pretty set upon returning even though there was no distinguishable path at the moment. And despite all my efforts to help her earlier and try to give her comfort I still felt woe in her essence. She was still thinking about her parents so I tried to get her mind off of it.

"I come out here to walk sometimes…" I said gazing into the dotted sky. "When the moon and stars are out like this. Kind of helps me think about things."

If there was anything I liked best about this world, it was its frequent full moons and long nights. There was actually a time within the year that night remains perpetually. For me, I thought that was the greatest time of the year. I turned back to the young girl. "Do you like the moon?"

She nodded.

I leaned back again resting my head in the warm sand. "The stars too?"

She nodded again. "My mother and I go outside all the time and look at them whenever we can."

Faline suddenly looked down and I saw tear beginning to form in her eyes again. So much for getting her mind off of home. I didn't know what else to do. As far as I knew we were stuck here and there wasn't much I could do about it. But I tried to comfort her anyway.

"Don't worry, I promise you, Tikoro and I will take care of you guys until we can get you back home." I said. "I know we can find a way."

She continued to sniffle and I almost sighed in annoyance. How does Tikoro do it? He should be the one comforting this girl right now not me…

I thought about all the many things Tikoro might have done and one idea came to mind. At first, I didn't think I was up to doing it, but then I found my curiosity didn't care what I felt so I did it anyway. Hesitantly but gradually, I extended my arm and touched her shoulder. My hand lingered there for only a moment before I finally slid my arm across her back then to her other shoulder and then with a slight tug I pulled her close to my side. I didn't know what was going to happen now and for a millisecond, I had the thought she might slap me or get upset or something, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, she warmed up to my embrace and leaned against my side scooting as close as she could and placed her head on my chest. She was grateful for the compassion I was showing. She needed somebody to hang onto and support her and I was there.

We sat there close together and silently for almost ten minutes and for a while only just stared out into the water listening to the sound of the waves break themselves on the shore of the beach before being sucked right back into the deep waters. And as I listened, my mind also began to wander as well. Surprisingly toward the young girl cuddled up next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I watched her. She was hugging her knees and staring out into the waters almost in a trance. It almost appeared as if she was about to fall asleep. I noticed she wasn't sad anymore but she seemed to be thinking about something though not her parents. I only stared at her, almost within a trance myself. I couldn't make mind not think about the fact that she was so beautiful. The moon shone in her eyes illuminating them like bright crystals. I then became aware of her soft delicate skin touching my own and some part of me ached to remove my gauntlet since only my fingers could feel through the heavy glove.

A soft wind blew in our faces causing her hair to brush across my face. It was so soft…softer than silk. She even had a distinct scent to her…

I blinked. _"Wait…what am I doing…?"_

"Ah…ummm…we need to go." I said suddenly removing my arm and standing up quickly.

"Oh…" she said. Those beautiful blue eyes looked so sad again…but I don't it was because of the fact she couldn't get home… Thinking about that possible fact made me rather uneasy and tongue tied and I coyly looked away.

"Can you help me stand?" she asked.

I nodded and grasped her arm and helped her to her feet. However, with her foot as num as it was, she had some trouble keeping steady.

"C-c-can you stand pretty girl….good!" I said quickly catching myself. "Can you stand alright?" I prayed she didn't notice my stutters and my slip. Fortunately she only nodded. But I did happen to see a ghost of a smile on her face. That didn't really help my worries any.

But then, Faline turned back toward the ocean and for a few seconds said nothing. "Will…will we ever be able to return home, Hauku?" she asked softly.

I sighed. "Honestly…I don't know." I felt that sadness immediately come back so I quickly added something else. "But I swear to you, Faline, I will always be around to protect and take care of you." I turned her around and looked her straight in the eye. "I promise you that…"

I had really meant it too. Maybe not as passionately as it might have seemed but I still meant it.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Faline wrapped me up tightly in a hug. To tell the truth, I was so surprised I almost thought she was attacking me. But I finally figured what was going on and relaxed a bit but none too much. At first I only stood there dumbfounded before finally getting the courage to hug back. "Umm…so I'm guessing you feel a little better right?" I asked meekly.

She nodded.

I gave a nervous laugh. "Then let's get going then." I began walking back toward the woods but then stopped. In my haste….I had forgotten Faline couldn't walk at the moment.

"Ummm…."

I then walked back over to her. "Well…I guess I'm carrying you then."

Faline only giggled.

-------- I hope chapter 2 was good too. I've spent a lot of time on the fight scenes rewriting them in such and i just might do it again but not now. You've seen a shadow of Hauku's true self while he was fighting and a bit of his soft side as well. I hope that balances out his character. I'll upload the next chapter soon after i see if this story is doing well or not.

Adios!-----------


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By the time we arrived back at the red building it had definitely come to be a lot livelier than it had been. At night this place was a flourishing spa of sorts. Nobles and rich Mavoles came here to spend the weekends all the time and during the Blue Moonlight Festival, which started tonight, this place was the number one popular place to come. If you had the money that is.

Tikoro and I worked here under the command of the young mavolian sorceress Agatha. She gave us our jobs which would range from cooking to cleaning or special jobs that only we could perform. Agatha was also in a sense, the ruler of this part of the realm. Almost like a governess. She provided protection to the people in the neighboring villages and towns if necessary and kept things in order around here. She also enforced law and commands from the kingdom across the sea. To top it all off, she ran this resort. When Tikoro and I first arrived in this realm, and were unfortunately arrested for being outsiders, Agatha quickly took a liking to our abilities after we beat the snot out of her military personnel. Since we couldn't return home, we took her offer of being personal bodyguards and carried out her most important work. Speaking of work, I wondered what kind of job we had tonight. It had to be important since she didn't want us to be her escorts tonight. I guess I would find out here soon.

I still had Faline in my arms and I saw her staring wondrously at the many different people filing across the bridge and into the gigantic red building. I think she was mostly paying attention to the more strange looking folk.

"Spirits…" I said quietly to her as we approached. "They can walk around in their own forms as they choose. The ones you are seeing right now…some represent elements."

"Oh…" she said still staring.

I kept walking toward the bridge but suddenly, I stopped. I was feeling something and I couldn't move and i looked down at my feet. It had seemed that I had stepped into a puddle. But I couldn't pull my foot out of it.

"What in the world?" I started.

"Ah? Is that any way to say hello to a lady?" said a voice from within the puddle.

I almost dropped Faline in surprise at hearing a talking puddle that knew my name. "What?"

The small puddle giggled before suddenly transforming into a very pretty young lady that was dressed rather seductively in water. "Oh come now, Hauku you remember me right? It hasn't even been a year yet"

I recognized her face. "Undine?"

Undine was the water spirit of the land. She was here last year for this festival that was coming up. And…according to Tikoro…she had a bit of a fancy for me. But in truth, I thought she had a fancy for both of us.

She clapped her hands like a little child. "Bravo, bravo, you do remember? I'm so pleased. How have you been? I've been waiting here for you, Tikoro said you would be here momentarily." She looked down at Faline suddenly noticing her then back up to me. "Are you working?"

I hoped she didn't mean anything by that. I quickly tried to adopt the polite gentlemanly character that I was trained to have around the guests. "Umm…well...no…not quite…" I stuttered. "I'm going to see Miss Agatha right now for an assignment."

"Oh, I see." She glanced down at Faline and then back to me again almost like she didn't entirely believe me. I started to feel rather stupid right then so I tried to have more manners.

"Oh…umm…this is me and Tikoro's friend, Faline." I said. "She's…uh…new here…"

Faline looked up at Undine meekly if not nervously. "Hi…"

Undine looked down at Faline and offered her a warm smile. "How do you do?" she said bowing slightly. But then she noticed her foot which was now wrapped in a cool wet cloth and some scratches on her arm. "Ah…? What happened?" she asked.

"Necro…" I said quietly. "She'll be alright though. But I need to get her inside."

I was trying to take this as an opportunity to slip away. Fortunately it worked as Undine nodded in understanding.

"I see, well I won't hold you up then. After all I'm sure you have plenty of work to do, you and Tikoro whisking off damsels in distress and such." She added with a teasing tone to it.

I felt myself flush. "I'm sorry, but you have to excuse me."

She laughed. "It was nice seeing you again, Hauku." she purred. She blew me a kiss that formed a watery blue heart in the air and it landed on my nose.

I politely smiled and nodded. "Goodbye, Undine."

With another giggle, the sly spirit gave a little spin before disappearing into hundreds of tiny water droplets that floated away and vanished.

I breathed a sigh and Faline looked at me curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" I replied continuing to walk. "She just makes me nervous sometimes."

"Why? Because she likes you?"

"Kinda…"

"Do you feel that around every girl?"

I shrugged. "She's the first so I wouldn't know." I paused. "Why…?"

"Oh…no reason." Then she laid her head back on my chest.

I shrugged again and then made my way onto the packed bridge. It seemed to be even more crowded then it had been last year. Mavoles from all parts of the realm had shown up for this special weekend. The Blue Moonlight Festival was a three day event that happened every year or so. The moon would be at its brightest and turn as blue as the ocean and nearly make everything glow with its radiance. It was a very interesting spectacle. Nothing like this ever happened in my realm.

I constantly kept pushing and elbowing my way through the crowds trying to get to the front.

"Excuse me…"

"Ow!"

"Sorry…"

"Hey!"

"Pardon me…"

"Hi, Hauku!"

"Oh…hey, Undine."

I finally got to the front where a tall and handsome Mavole named Kail was standing. He was wearing reading glasses and writing on a list as he admitted people into the building. He had just finished writing down the name of a woman he had just let in before he looked up at us and gave a warm.

"Awww…such a handsome couple." He flicked through his papers. "A room for two?"

I blinked in astonishment. Why was everyone mistaking us for a couple?

"Kail…it's me, Hauku." I said quietly.

He took a closer look at me. "Ah! Hauku, where have you been? I've been looking all over for you." He said. "The cooks need help with a little…" He trailed off suddenly as he noticed that I was carrying Faline in my arms who was curled up against me pretending to be asleep. "And who is this beautiful lass?" he asked. Kail then looked at me with a small smile. "Don't tell me this bad boy got landed by a girl all of a sudden did he?"

I shook my head disregarding that remark. "She had a run in with the Necro." I whispered to him so the other guest wouldn't hear. Necro had an infamous reputation and struck fear into the hearts of most of the common people. "She'll be alright but I need to tend to her ankle."

Kail nodded quickly and let us pass. "We can't spare any rooms though, Hauku." He called to me as I walked on through the glass doors.

"She'll stay in mine." I called back.

Then, we stepped inside.

Luminous lights were everywhere throughout the giant resort casting a resonating glow on the wooden walls. The floors were covered in a rich sapphire carpet that smelled sweet like flowers. And a as a huge building such as this suggested, the levels stretched very well into hundreds to hold the thousands of guests that would be arriving here soon from the towns and even from across the sea. There was a rich smell of many different types of food hanging in the air that would set anybody's stomach to rumbling as soon as they had sniffed the air.

I looked around the busy lobby looking for my friend but he wasn't there. Maybe he had taken Kiera up to the rooms already. I thought I should do the same.

Looking around again, I spied a polished wooden contraption that was unoccupied and I quickly walked over to it and stepped in. There were two levers in it. One was for going down, the other for going up. I took the one on the right and pulled it back. There was a small clicking noise and the shifting of gears.

"You may want to brace yourself." I said to Faline.

She looked at me in confusion but held on tight nonetheless.

Suddenly we jolted a bit and the contraption started to move up……but very, very, slowly.

"For that?" Faline asked loosening her grip.

I shook my head. "No…this."

Click!

Whoosh!

We suddenly accelerated to a much faster speed sending Faline into a fright as she clasped my arm. I felt her nails dig into my skin and grimaced biting my lip.

_"Ow…"_

We passed about fifty levels in less then twenty seconds before finally there was another loud shifting of a gear and we slowed considerably and then there was one more clicking noise to stop us. Even after we stopped, Faline still didn't release her death grip on my arm. I walked nearly a hundred paces forward down the hall and still she didn't let go.

I stopped in my tracks. "Faline…can you let go please…that hurts…" I said quietly.

Faline quickly pried her fingers loose not realizing what she had been doing. "I'm sorry…"she apologized with some slight embarrassment. "I've never ridden in a thing such as that before."

I nodded looking down at my bleeding arms. "I guess this definitely proves that…"

"Ah…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to."

"No worries."

I continued down the hall and maneuvered past guests and workers that were passing through exchanging greetings with many of them. I did receive rather peculiar looks from some of the people I worked with as they walked by. Some gave me a light punch in the arm, or a loud "Whoo yah, Hauku!"

I remember somebody whistling too before saying "Go get her!"

Who were they wanting me to go get? I was rather confused. I looked down at Faline hoping to get some answers from her but she only hid her face in my chest. If I didn't know any better…I'd say she was blushing for some reason.

I made a left down another hall. This one was filled with paintings that line showing pictures that were both young and old. Some of the interesting paintings showed portraits of previous owners of the spa as well as pictures of landscapes that were so well-crafted that it made you feel like you were actually standing right there in the sunshine or the moonlight.

"Hey…" Faline suddenly asked pointing toward one of the walls. "That looks a little familiar..."

I looked at the painting she was looking at and nodded. She was looking at portrait that Tikoro had drawn. In his studies in the palace when he was younger he was also an excellent painter. During our time here he had crafted a picture of my homeland. "Tikoro drew that." I told her. "That's where we live, the Woodland Realm."

Faline sighed. "Your home is a beautiful place. We just came from there not too long ago with my father and mother. There was some sort of meeting held there…"

"About what?" I asked.

"I really don't know. I think it was confidential."

"Ah, I see."

I continued walking on. "Do you like our home?"

She nodded. "But I really didn't get a chance to see it. We stayed in the castle and I wasn't allowed to venture outside the walls."

"Oh…" I replied. I was silent for second before I finally said. "Do you want to see it again? And actually explore instead of being cooped up in a castle?"

She nodded. "I'd love to."

I nodded back. "Then we'll try to go through it before we drop you off at home."

We stopped at a smooth wooden door and I knocked.

No answer.

"Tikoro isn't in here." I said to myself opening the door. I stepped inside carefully maneuvering Faline in through the door and then touched my hand to a marked panel on the wall. With a small burst of magic I sent a little energy into the panel and it traveled up a line in the dark blue wall and into the lights above and suddenly they sprang to live illuminating the huge room. Tikoro and I had separate rooms but since his was higher we both shared mine. There was a giant bed on the far side of the room and next to it a small cot where I slept since I didn't prefer beds. A giant windowpane looked out over plains of the realm. Since the moon rose on this side of the realm it spilled its light into the room casting a mysterious blue glow in it. The floor was hardwood and only a few carpets were lying here and there. A lamp and a desk sat on the far side of the room near the bed and the desk was cluttered with paints and brushes and other art materials from Tikoro.

I shut the door behind me and locked it before walking over to the bed and laying Faline down in it.

"Foot still numb?" I asked her.

She nodded while looking around. "Is this your room? It's almost the same size as mine."

I nodded and took the wet cloth off from around her ankle and then walked over into another room which was the bathroom. I came back out with another fresh cold cloth and rewrapped that around her foot.

"Tikoro and I are high ranking here. So we get pretty decent rooms." I said.

"You work here?"

I nodded.

"What do you guys do?"

I paused a second and sat down on the end of the bed. "Lots of stuff. We cook, clean, things of that sort."

Faline sighed and leaned back in the bed. "Ahh…this is so much better than sleeping in tents." She was getting comfortable but then suddenly sat up. "Wait…am I sleeping in here?"

I nodded.

"Then where are you going to sleep?"

I shrugged. "I prefer the ground." I said nodding off toward my cot.

"Oh."

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "Hey Hauku, are you in there, mate?" hollered Tikoro's voice from outside the door.

"Yes, come in." I called back.

The handle jingled. "I would…but you got the bloody door locked."

There was a click and suddenly the door swung open as I released the lock with my mind and Tikoro walked in followed by Kiera. Tikoro was wearing a mischievous grin on his face. "You are the subject of today, mate." He said slyly as he approached us. "There was something spreading around about the most eligible bachelor in the spa finally having a woman. Even Undine is disappointed."

He looked at Faline lying in the bed then slowly back to me, sitting in the bed. "Whoa wait a minute……why was the door locked again?" he asked me.

I glared at him.

"I'm kidding, but come on, we need to go."

My glare faded. "Agatha called?"

Tikoro nodded.

"Who's Agatha?" Kiera asked.

Tikoro turned to her. "A sorceress, she runs things around here. And we need to explain you guys' presence here. She can tell the difference between an elf's essence and that of a Mavole."

"A Mavole?" Faline asked curiously.

Tikoro waved her off. "We'll explain later we need to go now. She doesn't like being kept waiting."

He gestured to me. "Hauku, lets high-tail it to the elevator."

"Umm…wait a second." I pointed to Faline. "Can you heal her foot first?"

Tikoro nodded. "Ah, certainly." He replied stepping over to her. He made a quick swipe with his and over her ankle and…

"All done." He said.

Faline wiggled it and then smiled. "Hey, the pain is gone." She exclaimed.

Tikoro blew on his hands in mock cocky kind of way. "No problem for a magic genius…" he said all dramatically. "Please, please, save your gifts and praises, I was only doing what had to be done."

We began walking out the door. "Keep this locked and let nobody in, ok?"

The girls nodded.

"Alright, we'll be back here in a few minutes." He then shut the door locking it behind him and we shuffled down the hall. He didn't say anything for a second but then out of the corner of my eye I saw him smiling at me.

"What?" I asked.

"So are the rumors true?" he asked.

"What rumors?"

"So were you whispering sweet nothings into Faline's ear and giving her light pecks on the lips as you carried her up here?"

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him in stupefied shock. "What??"

"Well…did you?"

"NO! Who in the world told you that!?" I cried rather loudly.

"I just heard rumors…"

"Well they aren't true!"

"Ok, ok, mate, just calm down." He paused a second then added. "But you have to admit…she is pretty cute don't you think?"

I was silent.

He waited for an answer. "Well…?"

I still said not a word and continued walking on.

Suddenly Tikoro appeared in front of me. "Do you like her?"

I walked around him.

Tikoro only followed after pestering me like an annoying child. "It's alright, mate. If you've got feeling for her I wouldn't blame you."

I finally looked at him. "I don't have feelings for her." I said.

That alone would not keep him off my back. He kept jumping around me like a monkey. "What if she likes you? She'll be mighty disappointed…"

I shrugged.

He chuckled. "Oh, what the heck, I know you like her."

"What makes you say that?" I asked sarcastically.

"I didn't…" he suddenly grabbed me and pulled me over to a large mirror hanging on the wall. "Your face did."

I looked at myself in surprise.

Tikoro laughed. "I'm sorry, Hauku." He chuckled out. "But that is one doggone "I like Faline" written all over that grin."

I wasn't sure about the whole "I like Faline" part. But there sure was a big grin on my face that stretched ear to ear. And I didn't even realize it.

I quickly sobered myself as fast as I could before taking off down the hall.

Tikoro ran after me laughing. "So were you lying about those rumors?" he called to me

"Shut up!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Agatha did not need much from us.

She asked about only two things. First, she wanted to know about the two princesses, second, she wanted to know about the Necro.

Arriving at the topmost floor, Tikoro and I quickly made our way quickly to the office and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" came a cheery voice from within.

Tikoro slowly opened the door and stepped inside to see the young sorceress filing through letters that were sitting on her neat and smooth wooden desk. Her room was the biggest in the building since it seemed that it consisted of the whole top floor. A velvet carpet was spread throughout the room and all around hang mirrors and decorations of all kinds. In the ceiling hung a giant chandelier that cast a bright glow in the room.

As we walked in Agatha didn't even look up at us. "Ah, Hauku and Tikoro, I needed to talk with you. Please, sit down." She said politely.

Tikoro took our seats in plush chairs and waited as she quickly began stacking the rest of her papers. Young and beautiful as she looked, Agatha was nearly four hundred years old, but like our kind didn't age much after turning twenty. She had sparkly white hair and her eyes were a light green but they seemed to stare right through people's minds whenever she looked at them. She wore a long elegant silver dress and lots of jewelry hung all over it as well. She was looking her best for tonight.

"So the women are safe?" she inquired after she stacked the last pile.

I gave a nod.

Agatha stood and walked to the front of the desk and sat on it. "Aren't they of your kind?"

"Yes, they live close to our realm to the east." I spoke up.

"They are the daughters of the King there." Tikoro added.

Agatha's eyebrows rose. "Royalty, eh? I'll be sure they are comfortable here then. But anyway, they aren't my concern right now. I'm worried about the creatures that attacked them. Did you kill them all?"

Tikoro shook his head. "Just most of the party, but there are more of those wooglies out there I'm sure."

"I'd imagine there are encampments scattered around the area too." I put in.

Agatha shook her head. "Those awful creatures…I'm afraid of what they might do if they attack here." She looked at me. "Did you hear about the news in the villages?"

"Those murders? Yah, they were by Necro, we already caught and executed them."

Agatha nodded. "Good work, however, they are growing bolder by the day. Raiding a village is unheard of for them. What if they try to attack us here? On the week of the Blue Moon Festival of all days…"

"I assure you milady, we will not let that happen. We will be on patrol at all times." Tikoro said puffing out his chest.

"That's not what I want you to do." Agatha said.

Tikoro deflated. "No?"

"I want you to find every one of these creatures in the area and exterminate them. Murders are growing because of them. It's imperative that you complete this task."

Tikoro looked at me and I shrugged. "I like Plan B. It gives me something to do…" I said to him.

He shrugged as well. "Fine."

Agatha nodded to us and then went back behind her desk and pulled out two heavy pouches of gold coins. "Here's your pay kiddos." She said tossing them to us. "Come back safely won't you?"

I nodded and then Tikoro puffed out his chest once again. "Don't worry, we'll be back before dawn!" he promised.

Agatha smiled. "You're dismissed." She said.

We got up and bowed but before either of us could turn to leave Agatha spoke again. "Wait a minute…Hauku?"

I turned back to her. "Yes ma'am?" Then I noticed the smile on her face and I felt myself frown. "Umm…what?"

"Congratulations."

"For what?" I asked not liking where this was going.

"I heard you were getting married soon correct?" she asked excitingly. "Are you going to have the wedding around here?"

Oh brother…

"What the heck is wrong with everybody?" I asked Tikoro as we shot down through the floors in the elevator. I was still pretty steamed about the whole rumor that was going around. "Why is this getting so blown out of proportion?"

"I know, isn't it great?" Tikoro said leaning back against the railing. "You getting married? It's hysterical!"

"More like mortifying."

The elevator suddenly slowed to a stop at one of the floors and a cook got on heading down like we were. Tikoro and I were silent as we went down a few more floors before it stopped again and he got off. But before leaving he turned back and gave me a cheesy smile. "Oh right, congratulations my friend!" he offered before stepping off the elevator and heading off into a room.

I glared at him as he left and sharply kicked the button to make us go down again.

Tikoro chuckled at me. "Now, now, mate. No need to get angry."

"I'm not angry…"

"Oh? So you are happy?"

"Don't push it, Tikoro…"

With all the stops we had to make at different floors, it took us nearly ten minutes just to get down to our floor. And during those ten minutes I had more greetings and congratulations than I would have liked that left me in a dazed kind of state.

I hate emotions…

Tikoro led the way back to our room still amused by the fact that the little rumor had gone out of control so quickly. The whole way back he continued to poke jokes at me and the only thing that kept me from pummeling his face into the ground was how public it was at the moment. I'd get him later sometime however. But until then I had to deal with it.

"So when is the wedding?" he asked as we walked down our hall.

"There is no wedding, haven't you got that through that stupid head of yours?" I shot back.

"Well there's got to be a wedding if you're going to get married."

"But there is no wedding!"

"Awww…come on, mate. A wedding isn't so bad is it?"

"I'm not having one!"

"What about a reception?"

"A what?"

"The part when we eat?"

"No!"

"No food, mate? Your wedding is going to suck..."

"I told you I'm not getting married you-!"

"Shh…we're back at our room…" he suddenly said stopping at a door. "And they are sleeping."

I hadn't noticed. I had been too busy arguing. I instantly shut up and just folded my arms and glared at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing …"I said opening up the door.

The light had been shut off now but the moon was now casting the whole room aglow with its light. The two maidens were sleeping soundly within my bed and their soft breathing filled my ears. Or was that Kiera snoring?

I put my hand against the wall to release magic into the lights again but this time at a lower intensity so Tikoro and I would have just enough light without waking the girls. We grab some stuff which consisted of mostly med pouches so we could leave. Most of our things weren't in here though. They were in a storage room at the bottom of the building. They contained the more lethal of our tools. Weapons, Poisons, projectiles, ect.

I grabbed the last of the provisions I thought I might need out of a chest in the corner and then securely closed and locked it. I threw a glance at Tikoro who was on the other side of the room doing the same. "You ready?"

He looked back at me for a second then toward the sleeping princesses. "Hold on a minute." He said walking over to the bed. "Let me say goodbye first."

I blew a sigh not really feeling like arguing with him anymore at the moment and just stood silently by the door.

Tikoro kneeled down beside my bed gazing at the sleeping Faline and Kiera for a few seconds before finally nudging Kiera awake. "Hey, wake up sleepy head." He prodded.

I heard her mumble something intelligible before rolling over. She happened to however roll over in the wrong direction and she teetered on the edge of the bed a bit and then slipped over the side into Tikoro's lap nearly knocking him over. Fortunately that jolted her awake. "Ah, I'm sorry." She cried, frantically trying to untangle herself from the sheets of my bed that she apparently carried over with her.

As she did so there was another small groan as Faline stirred out of her sleep when she suddenly felt the chilly air against her skin when her blanket was yanked off of her. "Give that back…" she mumbled sleepily.

Tikoro set Kiera back in bed after she untangled herself and covered them both back up in the blankets where they snuggled down warmly. "Hauku and I are leaving now miladies." Tikoro whispered to them. "We'll be back in the morning possibly."

"Where are you going?" Kiera asked.

"Umm…" Tikoro thought a second. He didn't really want to tell that we were about to go commit genocide. "We've got patrol duty to do. With the festival going on we don't want any of those nasty wooglies from earlier crashing the party." Well…it wasn't exactly a lie. He just left out the "leave none alive part" of the story…

Faline shuddered a little. "You mean those scary creatures that attacked us earlier?"

Tikoro nodded. "But with Hauku and I around, they're not getting anywhere near here and if they do…" he suddenly drew his blade and brandished it over their heads expertly. "We'll show em' a thing or two."

Faline giggled at him then suddenly began looking around curiously. "By the way, where is Hauku?" she asked. "Is he going to say goodbye too?"

Even with the small amount of light coming through the window and the little glow from the ceiling there were still great shadows all over the room and I happened to be standing in one of them so she couldn't see me. My black clothing was instantly swallowed up in the darkness making me nearly undetectable.

But Tikoro could see me easily enough and he turned back to me. "Hauku, quit skulking back there in the shadows and come over here."

I reluctantly stepped forward. "We are already short enough on time as it is, Tikoro…" I replied quietly. "We need to go."

He shook his head. "The night is young, we have plenty of time."

I sighed and walked over but I didn't say a word for awhile. Tikoro and the two princesses kept chattering away with matters that I didn't care enough to listen to so I stood there quietly looking out the window. The moon had risen higher now. In a couple of hours it would disappear from sight in my window. I kind of wished that I had a sun roof…gazing at the moon could relax me a little.

Suddenly, I felt eyes watching me and I turned back toward the bed where everyone was still talking but it seemed Faline had forgotten about the conversation and was now staring at me. When our eyes met, we looked away again for a second until neither one of us could take it anymore and we had to look at each other again. I offered a polite smile and she did the same before getting up out of bed and walking over to me.

"How are you?" Faline asked.

"I'm fine," I replied. "How about you? Is your ankle giving you any trouble?"

"No, Tikoro patched it up quite nicely." She said looking down at it and giving it a little wiggle. She looked back up at me. "So you will be gone all night?"

"Its just for tonight." I said. "We have tonight's patrol and then the rest of the festival is ours to enjoy."

"A festival?" she asked.

I pointed out the window where the blue colored moon was rising across the oceans into the sky. "The Blue Moon Festival." I explained.

She nodded. "That's sounds like fun."

"Your invited of course…" I said. "There are a lot of activities you might enjoy here. And the food is great too."

"At our festivals at home we have dancing too." Faline told me. "Do they dance here too?"

"Umm…I think so…" I replied thinking back. My last dancing experience was not too enjoyable since it consisted of young female Mavoles asking me to dance. Even a few children.

However, Undine….that was a different story. She didn't bother to ask, she just pulled me right onto the dance floor. It wasn't really bad but her dancing was really…seductive and that made my eyes rest on places I never thought I would even take time to look at. Lets just say she turned a lot of heads and left a lot of people drooling after her later. But hey, that's Undine for you.

"Kiera!" Faline suddenly cried back to her friend. "They're dancing during the festival!"

Kiera's eyes lit up. "Really? When?"

"Umm…its actually probably about to start right now." Tikoro spoke up thoughtfully.

Kiera turned to him. "Do you still remember how to dance?" she asked

Tikoro smiled. "Are you asking me for a dance? I thought that was my job?"

"It is." She said slyly.

He chuckled. "Well, I am sorry but…not tonight. Tomorrow night ok?"

She nodded. "Ok."

He got up from off his knees and dusted himself off. "Well, mates…its time for us to be heading off here now."

Kiera in response also got up but only to hug Tikoro. "If you run into those things don't get yourself killed ok?"

Tikoro laughed. "Me get killed? Are you kidding? I didn't study swordsmanship all my life just to get killed, Kiera."

Faline turned back to me and held her arms out. I looked at her blankly for a second before realizing she wanted a hug as well. Oh well, wouldn't hurt anything. I stepped toward her and wrapped her up in my arms and she hugged me back tightly.

"See you around tomorrow." I said.

Faline nodded against me then paused a second. "Oh…and…" suddenly she reached up and gave me a small peck on my cheek. "That's for rescuing me earlier…" she whispered in my ear.

I swear I thought my knees just turned to mush. I'm sure there was some unbelievably stupid look on my face but… I had liked it. I had liked it when she kissed me. I couldn't really deny it. In a way…I wanted her to do it again…maybe if I asked…

Suddenly I pulled away giving my head a quick shake and I coughed nervously. "Uh…heh…you're welcome…" I stuttered. I coughed again trying to get it together. "Tikoro, we really should be...uh…going now…" I squeaked.

He stopped hugging Kiera and nodded. "Then lets go." He turned back to Kiera and Faline. "And you two get some sleep. We're going to town in the morning."

They nodded and began crawling back into bed. "Bye you guys." Kiera said.

"Stay safe." Faline added.

I opened up the door and Tikoro walked through it but turned back a second. "Remember, let nobody in if they come knocking."

Faline and Kiera nodded and Tikoro now satisfied, walked out the door. I followed behind him shutting it as I went. But before I did, I glanced back at Faline one last time. Ironically she had done the same and we locked eyes again but this time neither of us looked away. Those two seconds could have been two lifetimes as I stared into her big blue eyes again. Suddenly, I saw her mouth the word "Bye" and blew me a small flirty kiss. I felt a little tingling sensation in my chest as I suddenly felt myself smile again. But this time it was on its own, not forced.

"_Bye…"_ I said in her mind making her jolt in surprise. I then closed the door and hurried to catch up with Tikoro down the hall.

When I finally reached his side he looked at me with a sly grin again. "So why are you smiling this time, mate?"

I was still smiling? I quickly tried to erase it off my face but I still felt it. I couldn't make it go away this time…

We kept walking and he began prodding at me. "Well?"

I shrugged. "I don't know." I said quietly.

He sighed. "Do you just not like admitting things, Hauku?"

What was there to admit? As far as I knew I really didn't know why I was smiling. It just happened. I didn't know much about this type of feeling. I've never had them before in my life. Until today, after I met Faline.

I found myself still thinking about that kiss on my cheek. Her lips had been so soft. It was making me tingle all over now. Maybe she had put some sort of spell on it that was making me feel this way……no I would have sensed it. So what was really going on? I could usually identify the emotions I had but I couldn't seem to do the same with this one. This one was really different.

I hesitated to ask but I really wanted to know. "Tikoro…" I trailed off.

He looked at me. "Yes?"

I fumbled with the words a second but then just finally spit it out. "What….what exactly…is this thing called love?"

To my surprise, there was no teasing, no laughing, none of that. He considered my question a minute before giving me a response. "What's your sudden interest in it?" he asked.

I shrugged again. "I don't know…" I replied quietly. I wondered why I felt so embarrassed talking to him about this. This really wasn't me. "I just needed to know what it was."

"Why do you think I know?"

"Well…do you?"

"Maybe…"

"Can you tell me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

The Imilian turned to me and smiled. "It's just something you have to figure out on your own. That's what my mother said."

"So you don't know yourself?" I asked.

We began walking down a different hall that led toward the elevator. There were still people coming in and lots of them were using the elevators so instead we took the stairs. It was going to be a very long way down but it gave us a little more time to talk without being interrupted.

Tikoro gave me a little chuckle. "I didn't say I didn't know but, you need to trust me. It's just something you need to find out on your own." He gave me a sly look. "Is love something you are looking for?"

"No…" I lied.

"Not at all?"

"No…"

"Are you sure?"

"No...I mean…yes."

He laughed knowingly. "Whatever, mate, but look here. You will know when the time comes."

I nodded but I said nothing else. I was satisfied for right now. The rest of the trip down neither of us said anything. I still got some congratulations as we passed workers coming but it wasn't bothering me anymore. After traveling about twenty floors we reached the base of the spa (which I neglected to tell its name, the Silver Lion) and we made our way past a busy throng of people and in through a door on the other side of the room. Turning the lights on revealed it to be the storage room. There were a few large crates here and there filled with different types of supplies and other stuff but we moved past these and went to the back of the room. There, were our things. There were our swords, daggers, bows, arrows, and a number of other types of equipment. But since we had most of the equipment we needed the only thing we took was leather pouches from off the table that contained a small assortment of throwing knives and shuriken and we attached these to our belts. I then exchanged my blade for two others. They were long knives and I strapped these to the back of my belt.

Last of all, we donned our masks and flipped up our hoods.

"Ya ready, mate?" Tikoro asked.

I nodded back and he smiled through his dark mask. "Then let's hunt some wooglies."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was dawn now.

The light had just now crept over the mountains in the distant horizon and peeked through my window and into my face where I was sleeping on the floor. I was instantly awake and quickly I hid my face in my pillow. The sunlight was very hurtful to my strange eyes. My eyes could see very well in the dark but any exposure to direct light was very painful to them. I reached out with my hand toward the curtains of the window and they quickly began to rustle before sliding shut. With the light gone I lifted my head and began looking around the room. Faline and Kiera were still nestled down in the covers of my warm bed. I looked around for Tikoro and found him sleeping against the bed on Kiera's side. I looked at his face more closely to see if he was truly asleep but I noticed that his breathing wasn't calm and normal. He was awake, he just had his eyes closed.

I rolled over and looked up into the ceiling wincing at a sudden jolt of pain from the cut I felt on my shoulder. It was a parting gift from a dying Necro. He had been able to throw a shuriken at me before his last breath and it managed to scrape me across my left shoulder. It was only a small cut though, nothing serious.

"You awake, mate?" Tikoro suddenly whispered to me.

I sat up to a full upright position and stretched myself out. "Yah…" I mumbled. I looked over at the closed curtains. "What time is it exactly?" I asked, slipping off my cot.

Tikoro got up from off the floor and stretched out too. "About a couple of hours after dawn…" Suddenly his tummy rumbled and he looked down at it hungrily. "Man, I am famished." He complained. "I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon."

I sighed. "You could have gotten food while we were sitting up on the roof."

He shrugged at my remark and then suddenly reached down on the floor and picked up his shirt and pulled it over his head but it got stuck. "Wrmmff…mff fwrmff…hmfff…." He said through his shirt.

I looked at him puzzled. "What was that?"

He finally popped the troublesome shirt over his head and straightened out his hair. "I said…we should go take the ladies out for breakfast." He repeated again

"Why?"

"Well…because they are probably hungry."

I didn't really like that idea. It sounded too much like a date or something.

"Come on, Hauku." He prodded. "It could be a date. Wouldn't that be fun?"

That was just what I was afraid of.

"No…it wouldn't."

"How do you know?" Tikoro shot back.

"I don't know…"

"Then just come with us. I can't keep both Faline and Kiera company."

"So?"

He stopped a second then had a small gleam in his wild blue eyes. "I know how to settle this."

I just stared at him. "How so?"

He smiled. "I'm Blade Master this month right?" he asked. "You have a whole three weeks to wait while I parade around saying I'm the better of the two of us."

"What's your point?" I asked.

"I'll be willing to let you challenge me right here and now today for the title." He explained. "If you best me, you can do what you want, and keep the title for two months instead of one. If you lose…" He then smiled broadly. "You're taking Faline out on a date."

I grimaced. He had hit my weak spot. I loved having that title. But the upside was bad….but then again, I really wanted that title. I was his equal anyway, and the past week I had learned a few more tricks. So I knew I could win hands down.

So I let my overconfidence get the best of me. I held my hand out for him to shake and he took it.

"One condition however." I quickly said.

"And what would that be?" Tikoro asked

I smiled. "It's going to be hand-to-hand combat today."

He shrugged and we shook hands.

This was perfect! I thought he knew I was better at martial arts than he was? Oh well, too late for him to back out now.

"I'm looking forward to this." I said. "You shouldn't have given me a chance so soon."

He smiled and nodded then motioned off toward the door. "Shall we?"

I nodded and held my hand out in the direction of the door and under my power it swung open. "After you."

"Why, thank-you, mate."

He stepped out the open door and I followed behind him and closed it as I went.

As we walked down the dim halls I quickly began racing through my battle plans. Tikoro was stronger than me I knew that as much so I couldn't let him go on the offensive. Not that my defense is bad but I can only take so much of a pounding from him. I needed to strike hard and fast to catch him off guard and keep him on the defensive. I think he could still read me at top speed but not before my blows landed. If I was able to hit the right nerves I could easily paralyze him and the fight would be over!

I blew a silent sigh. That would be easier said then done. Tikoro was still a warrior of my caliber. It'd be hard enough hitting him as it is. We got outside the halls and into the main room and we could now look down over the railing of the spa. Everyone was asleep, most Mavoles and spirits sleep in the day anyway but I'm sure they partied all night long too because not a soul was up. The Silver Lion was ours for the day.

There was nobody around so there was no need for us to take the stairs or the elevators so Tikoro and I did what we did best and leaped over the side and free fell thirty floors down to the ground before landing silently on the wooden floor below.

As soon as we touched down I immediately began stretching to get ready as did Tikoro. And some quick punches and even swifter double kicks got me warmed up before I let out a breath and took my stance. Tikoro realized that I was ready and he did the same thing. He looked very calm. Which was funny, he always seemed to be eager to fight. But today was a little different. Maybe he was just concentrating really hard to make sure he wasn't caught off guard during any of the fighting.

"You ready?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Let's do this!"

And with that, Tikoro rushed toward me leaping into the air and released a back spin kick toward my head. He got the first move but I needed to flip that to my advantage somehow. I easily ducked under and followed up with a quick sweep and caught him in the back of his knee making him sprawl to the floor. But he recovered from that quickly and put his hands back to catch him from his fall and then bounced back up onto his feet where he started throwing a series of punches at me.

I batted these away watching in my mind's eye for an opening or a pattern I could read and strike back. But I never got a chance to do that because then Tikoro suddenly grabbed my wrist, stepped forward, and punched straight toward my gut. I grabbed at his strike trying to stop him but his fist flipped around my block and I watched in horror as I realized that this was going to hurt.

Bam! Thud!

I landed heavily on my back when his fist connected and I let out a gasp of air. He had knocked all of the wind out of me and I laid there on the floor for a second before bouncing right back up and quickly came at him against his own his own defenses. I let loose a barrage of swift kicks and punches at a speed he was having trouble matching. I caught him in his leg again making him drop to one knee but I saw him getting ready to counter attack my strikes. And he did, once I finished one spin kick, he immediately took advantage of its slower time for me to recover and he launched a powerful back spin of his own straight toward my head.

But it made contact with nothing but air.

"Huh???" he cried out in surprise but then he was cracked straight up in the chin when I appeared below him kicking him into the air. But it didn't stop there. I bounced off my hands and kicked him higher using my momentum to keep us rising into the air. He was so surprised he barely knew that he wasn't even trying to defend himself from my kicks to his gut.

I made another move. I kicked off him launching myself in another direction and I landed on the walls running up them about two steps before flipping right back off toward my friend who was still rising in the air. I twisted, front flipped one last time and then launched an axe kick.

My heel made contact with his gut and he spiraled back toward the ground and landed on the hard wood floors with a heavy Thud!

I landed near him, and watched as he struggled to get to his feet. And to just think, I didn't even go full force with my final blow. It was a good thing too, that strike could have killed him.

He gave up and fell back toward the ground and I looked at him closely. "Yield?" I asked.

He glanced at me and grinned. "Hauku, there is no way I am letting you win this one." With a great amount of effort, he finally got himself up and tried to stay up on his feet. He got his breath back and then stood up straighter and his smile got a little bigger and mischievous. "You are going on that date with Faline."

"Over my dead body." I replied rushing toward him. I made a hard straight punch aimed for his chest but he intercepted it and grabbed it twisting my arm into a hold. I grimaced in pain as I struggled with his strength while he twisted harder making me kneel toward the ground.

"How about unconscious?" he suggested.

I quickly kicked backward aiming my heel for straight in between his legs but a split second from contact he caught it in-between his legs with a surprised look on his face. "Hey! That's cheap!"

Whack!

I quickly twisted and planted an elbow into the side of his head sending him sprawling sideways and releasing his hold on me and he tumbled and rolled to his feet.

With a small grin, he rubbed the side of his head. "Never expected such a cheeky shot from you, mate." He laughed. "Are we so desperate to win now?"

I made no response to him, but he was right. I really didn't want to lose.

Suddenly, I saw his eyes flash and begin to glow. He was summoning up magic, but before I even knew it, he slammed a palm into the ground and a small tremor exploded through the floor! Suddenly sharp icicles began popping up out of the ground randomly under me and so I quickly leaped into the air and called upon my own magic. I created a dark portal that appeared above me and I flew straight into it followed by an icicle that was shot from the ground towards me. However the path closed before the icicle could reach it so it traveled harmlessly into the air and back to the ground.

Tikoro began looking around fro me his icy blue eyes scanning every crook and nanny in his sight. "Come on out, Hauku!" he called. "I can sense your essence skulking in the shadows somewhere."

I tapped his shoulder and he turned around suddenly in surprise to be met with a strike in his gut again that knocked all the wind out of him as he doubled over.

"Yah…" I smirked. "Your shadow that is."

He stood there, looking like I had knocked the life out of him and said not a word. There was barely even the sound of him breathing.

"Go, Hauku!" came a sudden shout from a voice up above me and I looked up in a startled shock. Standing there gazing down at us was Faline and Kiera. They must have woken up already and heard us fighting.

_"__Wait a second…ha__d she just been cheering for me" _I thought feeling a tiny feeling swelling up within me. It felt kind of good.

Crash!

I quickly glanced back at Tikoro and I gasped in shock.

He had just shattered into a million tiny pieces! But that was impossible! Did I kill him??

Suddenly I saw the pieces that were collecting on the ground beginning to melt away into liquid and I suddenly knew what had just taken place.

"An Ice Clone!?" I cried.

Quickly I spun around knowing what was about to come next but I was far too late. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and I suddenly lost focus of everything around losing all sense of direction and thought. Then, my world finally turned black as night.

"Hauku! Hey, mate wake up already!"

I heard the voice and felt a small tapping on the side of my face but it didn't make any sense to me. All I saw was darkness and I felt very dizzy and out of touch with the world. I felt like I had just woken up from a dream and I was now all comfy cozy on my cot but it turned out that wasn't the case.

I slowly opened my eyes to spy Tikoro, Faline, and Kiera bent over me looking at me with worried eyes. I felt something soft under my head and then I froze.

My head was resting on Faline's lap of all places and she was stroking my hair. I quickly glanced up and when my eyes finally reached hers she smiled a wide grin.

"You're awake! Are you ok?" she asked leaning even closer.

I gulped big time and tried to rise up but nobody would let me. As soon as even made the move to get up I was immediately pressed back into Faline's lap by everyone else.

"Easy there, Hauku." Tikoro said keeping me down. "You got a pretty nasty bruise on your head after that blow."

"You need to stay down for a while." Kiera put in.

I didn't want to stay down. I've had plenty of bumps on my head, what made this one any different? I was more worried about where my head was resting at the moment. I sneaked a peek at the princess who was still stroking my raven-black hair and flinched a bit when I noticed she was still smiling at me. For some reason I wanted to smile back but I resisted the urge to do so.

Instead I glared at Tikoro. "That hurt you little sneak!"

He shrugged. "Hey, it was a clean fight. It wasn't like I was going to…" he trailed off a minute glancing at Faline and then smiled back at me. "Walk up behind you and stroke your hair." He teased.

I felt a sudden surge of embarrassment after realizing that he was noticing Faline's actions and knew that I was half-heartily enjoying it to some extent. This time I sat up quicker so they couldn't keep me back down. But as soon as I did I felt pretty dizzy and the room seemed to spin before my eyes. Tikoro had to have hit me pretty hard because I never really got this woozy.

"Ah…" I felt myself losing consciousness and got light-headed again and had to lie back down again on Faline's lap to keep my sense.

"Too fast there, mate." Tikoro commented. "Just rest awhile ok?"

I nodded and kept my head there but trying to ignore that fact all at the same time. "How long was I out?" I asked quietly.

"About five minutes." Faline said.

Tikoro smiled. "I didn't exactly mean to knock you out. But it hit a lot harder than what I planned because you jerked backwards when you tried to avoid it."

I thought about that for a second then scowled at myself. I should have ducked and moved forward. But it really wasn't my fault anyway. It was Faline's. If I hadn't been distracted by her cheers I would have been able to detect his attack coming and gotten out of the way in time if not form some sort of counter-attack that could have won me the match.

Tikoro suddenly gave me a look. "But hey, since you got KO'd I win." He chuckled. "You know what that means?"

At first I couldn't remember but then I suddenly tensed up. The match! I had lost it! That meant……

Faline suddenly looked at me funny. "Hauku…?"

But it was too late. I had already passed out in her lap again.

I undid the last knot that was holding our canoes to the dock and I was urged on by the prodding of Tikoro who was complaining they were going to be late. Apparently he had made reservations the night before with a restaurant in a village and that they had to be there in a couple of hours. I managed to do nothing but scowl at him again. It was already bad enough that I had lost a chance at Blade Master for a while. It was worse that I now had to keep Faline company. I didn't consider that really bad but the problem was I just wasn't even the social type. So why of all people me?

As soon as I got our boat untied I threw the rope at him striking him clear in the nose leaving him yelping in pain and then went over to untie the canoe of Faline and Kiera.

We were in the gorge that the spa was beside and in it was a pretty and calm river that led through almost all of the villages. We were headed for a small town that was only about seven miles from here and Tikoro had decided that we took the waterway instead of walking and I had not too happily complied. This river was known as Love's Water and this is where the couples would come to canoe. And guess who was coupling up today?

Faline and Kiera waited patiently for me to undo the knot and I casually glanced at Faline who was sitting in the back with her paddle ready. To me she kind of looked like a little kid who was about to go off on a great adventure.

"Are you ready?" I asked them throwing the rope into their boat.

They both nodded and I gave them a little push off into the water's soft currents. "You're driving, Faline!" I called to them. "You know how to right?"

"I can learn!" she called back as she and Kiera disappeared around a bend in the gorge.

I quickly gave me and Tikoro's canoe a quick kick into the current before hopping into my spot in the front as we took chase after them. By the time we got around the bend they were already a little ways ahead of us and Tikoro quickly paddled a few strong strokes to increase our speed.

"Ahoy! Wait up ladies!" he called cheerily.

The two princesses glanced back at us and smiled and waved goofily before sticking their paddles in the cool water to slow down.

Tikoro and I smoothly sidled up next to their boat where we rested and steadily cruised in a straight path through the gorge.

I leaned back and relaxed in the front kicking my boots off and draping over the sides of the canoe letting them soak in the cool blue water. The current was keeping us at a steady pace and I figured we would make it to the town in about an hour's time. I glanced aside to see Tikoro chatting with Kiera about something but I wasn't really listening to their conversation. Faline didn't appear to be either. Her head was hung over the side of the boat gazing into the reflections of the water.

"It's a lot deeper than it looks." I said to her suddenly startling the girl a little bit.

Faline looked up at me and I sat up looking down at the water and then back up to her. "Searching for something?" I asked.

"No…" she said meekly. "I just remembered I can't swim…"

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you joking? You're a Water Mage and you can't swim?"

She shook her head no and I almost laughed. Water Mages were usually brought up around water and they were always excellent swimmers. But then again, she was raised within the walls of a palace that probably didn't even really recognize her abilities. That might also explain why her magic essence was so weak in the first place. I made a mental note to myself to teach Faline to swim before saying. "Well, just as long as you stay in the boat you will be fine." I said comfortingly as I lied back down in the boat.

"Hey, Hauku." came Tikoro's voice from behind me.

I looked up over my shoulder into his face with mine still showing traces of a scowl. "What?"

Suddenly from a satchel he pulled out a silvery ocarina that glinted in the sun's light. He gave the musical instrument a toot before gesturing to me. "Did you bring yours?"

I gave a small sigh. "I don't really feel like playing at the moment." I said quietly.

Faline suddenly started at me. "You play music?"

"A little…"

Tikoro snorted. "A little? Yah right. Hauku is the one that entertains everyone during the festival."

Faline looked at me in awe. "Really?"

I only shrugged. I was decent I supposed. The only reason why I even learned music because my master said it could help with training. Everyday after hard work we would sit down under the moonlit sky and then Master Karel would teach me to play. He said it was essential to calm the nerves and keep your mind serene and sound. I never really believed in any of that but I did start taking an interest to the art of music and since my master was very skilled in it past that art down to me too as well as sword work.

"Oh please, please play, Hauku?" Faline begged me. "I'd really like to hear."

I was just about to say no but then my eyes met hers and I almost melted at the sad look she was giving me. I seriously thought she was going to cry if I said no so pulled out the small flute sounding instrument. "Fine, but just a little bit." I sighed.

Faline really looked excited and even Kiera as Tikoro and I turned in our seats to face them and put the round instruments to our lips. They made not a sound and the only thing you were able to hear now was the sound of the water as it carried us downstream.

I took one deep breath and then began to play.

The music was a very beautiful piece that my master once taught me and I also taught it to Tikoro as well. At first it was a slow eerie sort of music that set you a little on edge but it quickly changed into a pretty tone that could make you tingle inside. But as the tunes changed, so did something else.

Our ocarinas were infused with magic giving them some interesting mystical properties. As we played the music had an effect on the environment and in this case it began to have an effect on the air and water. Slowly from the sky floated down sparkles that just magically appeared and as we played they became more noticeable as the music got even stronger. But soon Tikoro slipped off into a background tune leaving me with a solo and as soon as this happened my ocarina had an instant effect on the water. From its depths galloped a horse made of the cool blue waters itself and Faline and Kiera giggled with glee as the horse pranced about them through the air sweeping overhead and then diving down towards them. I had slight control of this horse so I brought it beside the princesses canoe so they could stroke its watery mane before it would trot off again around them. Their mouths were opened and their eyes shined as they watched the spectacle and then suddenly burst out laughing when the horse trotted over to Tikoro and snorted a load of water in his face. Tikoro quickly stopped playing and wiped the water out of his eyes but when he reopened them, the horse had turned around and raised its tail giving a little musical toot of its own and he was only squirted again with another barrage of water.

I was then satisfied by my antics and felt my revenge was complete so I quickly brought the music to an end and the horse with a mighty leap, soared to the sky then dove back below the depths. I was about to stop playing but then my eyes caught Faline leaning over the side gazing back into the water frantically searching for the beautiful horse. So I did something.

Suddenly the horse's head rose from the depths again and stopped a mere inches from Faline's face making her freeze with surprise. The horse looked at her a few seconds, then with a little whinny reached up and kissed Faline's nose with its own before diving back down.

After this, Faline suddenly looked at me with the cutest smile I had ever saw and I think I smiled back at her but then suddenly as I ended the song my last notes turned sour.

"Watch out!!"

Crash!!!

Faline and Kiera's canoe suddenly had dipped toward another path in the gorge that was a rapid and since Faline wasn't paying attention to where the boat was being directed slammed straight into a boulder sticking out of the water. The girls made a small yelp before splashing headfirst into the river. Their boat with its front end destroyed suddenly began sailing down the alternate path through the rapids and then disappeared as well below the surface.

Tikoro and I gave each other worried looks as we waited for them to resurface and finally one did.

But it was only Kiera?

"Where's Faline!?" I called to her.

She looked around just as confused as I was but then something caught my eye a distance away inside the rapids. Faline's head was there for a second above the rushing waters before it was pulled back under as she was swept away down the rapids current.

I gasped. "Oh no! She can't swim!"

I said no more and quickly threw off my cloak before diving into the waters and swiftly swimming after her leaving Kiera dumbfounded and Tikoro calling after me.

"Hauku!! Those rapids are way too strong!! You'll get killed!" he screamed after me. "HAUKU!!!"

But I didn't hear him. My body had disappeared below the surface unable to hear his words and my mind was focused on trying to get to Faline as fast as I possibly could.

This current was a lot stronger than I realized. Already I felt its pull and I was being swept through its waters like a rag doll. But it was also helping me move faster through the river and bringing me even closer to Faline. But I couldn't see her. I thought for sure I had swam fast enough to catch her now but it was not so. Terrible thoughts began to run through my mind that she had gotten pulled down by a current and was slowly drowning somewhere on the bottom of the river. But my fears were appeased when I suddenly saw her head again shoot up for air about twenty meters in front of me and I quickly made chase to her position. Dodging boulders and avoiding getting knocked up against the cliff wall I steadily drew closer but she then disappeared back under the waters again but this time I knew where she was and I dived after her. After a few seconds we resurfaced again but this time she was in my arms coughing up water while I kept us afloat. The river's current was growing more destructively wild as it dragged along the cliff walls.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

She made no response at first as she continued to cough up water and I kept us out of the way of objects by maneuvering through the water around them.

"Are you ok?" I asked again and this time she nodded.

"Th-thank you…" she managed to murmur to me.

"Don't thank me yet." I said. "I have no idea where this rapid goes but at the rate it's flowing…" I trailed off a second realizing what I was about to say and I grimaced. "There's bound to be a huge waterfall at the end…"

I saw the color drain from Faline's face.

Quickly I dodged another very large boulder. We didn't have a lot of time if my thoughts were true. But only to prove the situation to be even more dire was the fact that I could hear it now. I heard crashing water slapping against the land below. Something told me we were going over the edge of a very large cliff…

It was time for me to start thinking of a plan out of here.

I thought maybe I could grip something on the walls of the cliff beside us but its surface was too smooth from having water run through it like this for so long so that was out of the question. What about one of the boulders? I quickly lashed out for one of those as we went by them but my hand slipped off it as well. They were way too mossy. This is a time that some ice magic could have come in handy…

My Shadow magic was only strong enough to support one of us, I don't think I could handle two without breaking my mind from the strain of it…

We shot around a bend moving even faster than ever and then that's where I saw the mist forming in front of us.

The waterfall!

I made a choice and suddenly Faline found herself encased in my shadow magic and felt herself being lifted out of the water.

She screamed. "What are you doing??"

"Saving your life." I replied simply and quietly.

"What about you?"

I made no response to that. "Umm…I don't know…" I was pretty sure I was going to die but I didn't know how exactly to tell that to her. Instead, I quickly used the rest of my magic to lift her into the air and set her on top of the cliff above us in the grass and let go of her there all the rest of my magic drained. As soon as she touched down she quickly ran after me following me down the river while on top of the cliff.

"Hauku!!" she screamed at me.

I saw her face this time and there were tears sliding down them. I really didn't know why. We weren't exactly friends, just acquaintances. So why was she crying for me?

I looked back at the approaching waterfall. The mists were whipping about in my face. It would be a few more seconds now….did I have any last thoughts? Any regrets?

I could see the edge of the waterfall now. It poured into the sea in a three hundred foot drop.

"Hauku!!" I heard the screams of Faline echo through the deep gorge and I then smiled to myself. I had just one regret. Just one…

I was suddenly flung over the edge of the river and I began to plunge in a free fall toward the ocean.

"HAUKU!!!"

I regretted the fact that I wouldn't get a kiss for saving Faline's life again.

Faline watched in horror as Hauku was spit out of the river's grasp and now began to fall into the mists disappearing. He didn't scream, not one sound came out of his mouth, and over the roar of the water she couldn't even hear a splash when he hit. She closed her eyes and fell to the ground sobbing as she buried her face in the grass. He had saved her…he had put his life out for her on more than one occasion and he had saved her. But now, he was dead.

And it was all her fault.

She should have been watching where she was directing the boat. If they just hadn't crashed…this wouldn't have happened. What was she going to tell Tikoro

Faline cried all the more at her thoughts and the ground absorbed the tears that flowed into their hungry arms.

"It's all my fault…" she whimpered to herself.

Suddenly there was a crunching of grass from a boot and then a voice. "Are you ok, princess?"

Faline's head shot up from the ground recognizing the voice and screamed.

"Hauku!?"

At first she thought she was seeing a ghost. But I was standing right there with a rather worried look on her face. I had no injuries, except for a small scrape on my left arm and I was a little tired but other than that I was perfectly fine.

She got up slowly and I cocked my head curiously at her. "Faline…?"

She looked at me strangely. "Have you come to haunt me now…?" she asked in a melancholy voice.

I was bewildered. "I'm fine, I'm not dead." I chuckled at her. I then proceeded to explain what happened. "There was this tree see? It was sticking from out of the side of cliff and I landed on it and it propelled me back up here. Isn't that cool?"

Slap!

I found myself staring out into the distance. She slapped me so fast I barely had time to blink and found myself staring in the opposite direction in less than a millisecond and looked at her even more bewildered. "Why'd you slap me?" I asked. It didn't hurt me at all. But it was the fact that she slapped me that made what little feeling I had start to hurt.

Faline suddenly just burst out crying again and then threw herself into my arms and sobbing against my chest. "You were dead…..I thought you were dead…" she cried but a little muffled by my chest.

I cringed thinking she was about to hit me again at first but then I relaxed and hugged her back. "Hey, hey, shh….I'm fine see?" I made her look at me. "See? I'm no ghost, all me." I put her hands on my face and chest to show that I was real. "See?"

I then pointed to the red mark that was forming on my cheek. "You can't do that to ghosts' right?"

She calmed down a little and managed to smile before suddenly kissing me on that cheek. "I'm sorry…"

I felt an overwhelming feeling go through me and I grinned. "Umm…that's alright."

She kissed my cheek again and I felt like I was going to melt.

Yup, I really did like that.

I coughed a bit nervously giving myself a little time to regain composure, "Umm…so yah…" I began looking around and I sighed. "Wow, we really are back near the sea. It's going to be a long walk."

The wind suddenly blew all around us sending a shiver through our wet bodies and suddenly Faline sneezed. Now I had wished I had kept my cloak…

I pulled my light tunic over my head and took and squeezed all of the water out of it then waved it in the wind a little to help it dry faster before handing it to Faline. "This will keep you a little warmer then that skirt you're wearing."

Faline didn't take at it first. It seemed she was staring at something on me. I looked down at myself. There was nothing on me really. I still had my pants and a very tight sleeveless body shirt that my muscles were very casually poking out of. I wasn't a big guy, I was actually a little underweight and flimsy looking compared to most people. My muscles were average sized too but they were, very, very well developed and strong. I might as well have not been wearing a shirt because you could clearly see the outline of my six-pack as well as other muscles.

"Faline?"

She finally snapped out of it and embarrassedly took the article of clothing and pulled it over her head. There were a couple of reasons I did that for her. One, she was cold. Two…umm…well…she was wet…and wearing a white dress. Certain parts on her body were becoming much more noticeable than usual and I doubt she wanted to be seen in public like that. It was for my sake too.

I quickly drew all of my equipment out including that of those on my belt(which I had to remove from Faline) and laid them on the ground. I was a little concerned about the weapons. The pouches were water-proofed but not the scabbards. The blades could easily get rusted if water remained on it for too long. I looked at my knife and it was fine and I then looked at my sword and frowned. A little rust was beginning to form on the bottom of the blade near the hilt and I didn't have any sword oil on me. I'd have to get some from Tikoro when I got to him. I gathered everything back up, strapped the belt onto my pants so I could hold its items and then turned to Faline. "We'll get there faster if we run. Want to get on my back?"

"I can run…" Faline shivered.

I shook my head. "That's not a good idea at the moment, and besides I can run a hundred times faster than you can." My speed was beyond human. If clocked I could run a mile in under thirty seconds. But I couldn't keep that pace for long without burning out.

Faline sighed and then I let her climb up onto my back. I hoisted her up testing her weight and looked back at her. "You feel ok? You're a little red in the face…"

She smiled. "You're warm…"

I knew that wasn't the reason but I wasn't in the mood for a Q and A so I dug my feet into the ground and leaned forward.

"Brace yourself…so you don't claw me…"

This time, she actually did and I took off leaping the breadth of the gorge and ran even faster heading in the direction of the town to meet our friends.


End file.
